


Binded

by LucyMorningstar257



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Uke Sesshoumaru
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-04-23 05:51:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 36,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14325978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LucyMorningstar257/pseuds/LucyMorningstar257
Summary: SessKag, CU. Can a modern-day miko and a demon ever live together peacefully? 10 years after her adventures ended, Kagome meets Sesshoumaru's ghost during a ritual. The next day they're housemates! She's determined to find closure about her past, but will he ever give her the answers she needs? Slice-of-life, drabble-ish.





	1. A Miko with a Peculiar Housemate

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't sure if I wanted to upload this fic on Ao3. But then I thought, oh well. Let's just try. =)

_Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and its respective owners._

**A/N: Hi, Lucy here with a new story! This fic will be different from my usual stories—in fact this one has a more mellow, slice-of-life feel. I hope you guys enjoy this new offering and follow through it. Muahh!**

The ushering of the new year had seen more visitors than usual, locals and foreigners alike, all hoping for that fresh stroke of good luck. As a  _miko_  now serving in the Yukino Shrine, Kagome Higurashi was elbows deep in her duties, as she ran around serving the guests in any way possible. She couldn't remember how many times she had demonstrated the purification ritual upon entry, or the amount of good luck talismans she had whipped out.

Thank god she had Amari-chan with her, another fellow  _miko_  two years her junior, who assisted with the workload and would bestow each incoming group of visitors with a typical list of dos and don'ts within the shrine.

Dusk had settled, and the shrine was no longer accepting visitors. Amari-chan was seeing off the last of them, and as she was biding them farewell, Kagome joined her from behind.

"Oh my, today was one heck of a field day, wasn't it?" Kagome said, as she rubbed her aching neck. "Have you seen such a  _deluge_  of visitors before?

Amari laughed bashfully, cupping her mouth. She was an adorable young woman with a wavy bobcut, and her shy and polite gestures only made her more appealing.

"Yes, I was extremely overwhelmed! Especially the foreigners, they couldn't understand a single word I said."

"But you know Amari-chan, Yukino-jingu is only but a small shrine. You should see the other ones, like Nezu and Meiji. I bet they are still packed at this time."'

"Ah, you must have had a lot of experience being a  _miko_ , Kagome-sama. After all you served here longer than me."

"Not really. And I told you to lay off the honorifics, Amari-chan. Just Kagome-chan will do!"

Amari laughed again, and Kagome relaxed, as she faced upwards to the cold, darkening sky. Slowly, they began to close the shrine and started sweeping the snow on entrance grounds. Kagome wiped the perspiration off her forehead. It was still winter, although they had seen lesser snowfall on that part of town in recent years. She was more tired than she wanted to admit.

"As much as it is a blessing, it also comes with a throbbing headache, huh."

They both chortled, of which Amari quickly then hushed her friend. "Don't let the priest hear you, though."

"Speak of the devil, there he is, watching us from behind."

Jyohaku, the head priest of Yukino-jingu, stood quietly at its dark entrance hall, his tall  _kammuri_  hat accentuating his already impressive height. And was that a scrutinizing glare thrown towards them? The two women quickly ended their chit-chat, waving their rakes with more gusto.

"Well that's that! I'm calling it a day after this. Maybe a short stop to the nearby Family Mart. Are you coming home with me, Amari-chan?"

Amari glanced over her shoulder, almost forlornly.

"I'll guess I'll wait first for Jyohaku-sama."

"Alright then. I'll see you tomorrow. Ah—and a happy new year to you, Amari-chan!"

"Happy new year, Kagome-sama!"

Kagome sighed as she stopped before her door, her bag of groceries hanging heavily from her forearms. She dug her small satchel bag for her house keys. Soon, the last remnants of her patience completely disappeared, and she heaved her groceries onto the floor, belting out a string of curses as she ransacked her bag.

"I'm home," Kagome muttered morosely, once she was inside her house. She walked straight into the kitchen, passing the living room, where a silver-maned figure sat enrapturedly before the television screen, watching the Japanese dubbed version of High School Musical 3.

Her nose perked up. Having sorted the groceries out, Kagome then strode to the dining area and lifted the dish-cover on the table. There was a steaming rice bowl of  _tempura donburi_  waiting for her, alongside with a bowl of  _miso_  soup and some salad.

She instantly melted. Nothing beats a steaming bowl of rice after a particular hard day at work!

 _"Itadakimasu!"_  She called out loudly to no one in particular. Then she scarfed down her food, like a ravenous glutton who had been starving for days.

Within minutes, all the food had disappeared into her tummy. Kagome plopped down on the tatami mat, a gratified smile etched on her face, where bits of rice stuck to her chin. She rubbed her full stomach—so full it was aching—and then a thought reached her.

Kagome turned her head towards the living-room. She could only see his straight back. The silver-haired figure was still glued to his spot.

He sure watches a lot of TV, she surmised to herself.

An hour later, the credits began to roll. The film was over, but there was no hint of disappointment on his otherwise placid face. Quietly he stood up and walked into the kitchen, flipping his long hair over his shoulder. Centuries may have passed, but his hair still shone like silk, forever glorious.

For this Sesshoumaru, at least.

Suddenly something caught his attention. He turned and entered the dining area. The table still bore Kagome's empty dishes, bits of rice and food decorating the tabletop generously. Sesshoumaru's jaw tensed.

He remembered the first time when he had his first conscious moment in her house. He had woken up, his head throbbing as the memories of the exorcism overcame him, and how he had agreed to the binding in a moment of desperation. He had never woke up feeling so horrible and conflicted. And the smell. The smell of the house was beyond any putrid, decaying flesh that had defiled his nose. Apparently the  _miko_  lived in a rotten pigsty she called a home.

Kagome exited from the shower, smelling of lavender soap. Feeling fresh and light, she pirouetted around her bedroom, then regretted quickly, shivering against the cold. She hummed an old Do As Infinity song as she picked a pair of pajamas from her closet and laid them on the bed. Then she unfurled her towel from her body, and started to powder herself. At that precise moment, her bedroom door yanked open violently.

"The dirty dishes," Sesshoumaru started to say.

" _Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"_

* * *

Kagome sat on her desk, and filched out a book from her drawers. Its covers were of soft pink velvet, the word "Diary" inscribed on it in cursive letters. Perhaps it was too childish to belong to a 25 year-old woman, but Kagome secretly relished its feel, as she sniffed its scented pages. She set down to write.

_01 Jan 20xx_

_Happy new year! I guess I should be writing down my new resolutions, huh? Let's see what I've written for last year._

_1\. Lose weight_

_2\. Get a bloody boyfriend_

_3\. Visit Europe_

_None of these resolutions are being met! I've gained like 5 extra pounds, I'm still single AF, and I still can't make time or money for my Europe trip… T_T_

_What's the point of writing new resolutions?!_   _On a more serious note, it's been six months since I've had him staying at my house. You-know-who. It's still strange to say or even write down his name. And I'm still unsure how to approach him. I have millions of questions buzzing through my head each time I see him._   _All about the past. About the feudal era I left behind. Most importantly all my old friends..._

... _and that one person._

 _The only reason why I even performed that after-ritual was because I was so curious to know. Jyohaku would blow his top if he knew what I did, he's already pissed as it is, knowing I have a demon binded to me._   _That's right, I still haven't fully explained the details._

_It's a long story, but I promise to write everything when I have time._

Kagome glanced at the clock. It was close to 11PM.

"You know, for a demon, you watch way too much TV," she said, standing behind him, arms folded. Sesshoumaru didn't flinch. His ears were still ringing from her bloodcurdling scream.

"It is my only connection to the outside world," he stated matter-of-factly. "Until I have gained my strength, this is the only way I can be made aware of what kind of topsy-turvy place this world has transformed into the last few hundred years."

Kagome rubbed her chin. "Well you're right, I guess. Everything is topsy-turvy, if you're comparing it that old era you were from. But seriously, the media is like the worst place for you to learn. Especially this movie. It's total fantasy. You gotta take everything you see with a pinch of salt."

She turned to leave for bed, then remembered something.

"Oh, thanks for the dinner, by the way. I'm seriously impressed. Looks like those cookbooks I gave you really brought forth a budding chef, eh?"

She laughed to herself as she walked away.

Sesshoumaru sighed, as he leaned backwards and stretched his arms behind him. He hoped she didn't think he was doing it for her. He was just bored and was experimenting around the house as usual, and it usually involved doing household chores. And watching an unhealthy dose of Hollywood movies, which, as stupendous as they appeared, intrigued him to no end.

On the screen, Rose floated on a wooden board in the midst of the freezing sea, telling Jack not to let go.

Kagome's eyes opened groggily in the morning. It took her a while to register the face before her, so pale it was almost translucent. And those beautiful dark eyelashes! Long and fluttering, like that giraffe she saw in the zoo when she was a child. And what strange markings on that face…a blue crescent moon and…

She staggered backwards on the futon, cupping her hand over her mouth, trying not to scream. Why was Sesshoumaru sleeping and curled up like a baby beside her?!

It had been too long, way too long. Ten years to be exact, long enough to make her forget who he really was back then. Only that he served as a kind of phantom from her past, one that she sought hard to re-connect.

She glanced to the long tresses of his shimmering hair, cascading down his head. Kagome's hand reached forward and allowed his hair to slip through her fingers.

Soft. And  _real_. Sesshoumaru's breath hitched.

"Cold," he murmured in his sleep.

Cold? Kagome wondered. It was not a far-fetched idea to conclude that he was able to physically feel now. And his hair felt as solid as anything. Did Sesshoumaru finally gained a completely material body for himself, thanks to the after-ritual she performed?

Was he no longer a wandering spirit?

The poor thing. He must have laid next to her, unused to the cold, seeking for warmth.

Kagome sat up. It was time to get ready for work anyway. The shrine was going to see another  _deluge_  of visitors today. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. Then she pulled her blanket off her and covered Sesshoumaru with it.

_To be continued…_

[A/N: This is a comedy, I repeat to myself, this is a comedy. I pray to god this fic will not lose its footing and slip down to abysmal darkness..]


	2. Living with the Supernatural

_Disclaimer: Foolin' lyrics Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC_

_Lady Luck never smiles  
_ _So lend your love to me, awhile  
_ _Do with me what you will  
_ _Break the spell take your fill_  
- **Foolin',**  Def Leppard

**Pancakes**

A low moan drawled from her. Her chest heaved, expressing a deep sigh like an old woman repressing years of accumulated regret. She rolled over in her futon, her sleeping face meeting his.

Sesshoumaru watched beside her carefully. A tiny stream of drool was trickling from the corner of her mouth and his hand twitched. He was severely tempted to wipe it off.

"Hmmm," another sound emerged again. " _Pan_ …  _Pan_ … _keki_..."

Sesshoumaru lifted his head as his elfin ears perked. Pankeki…  _Pancakes?_  The young  _miko_ , to whom his soul was fused to, whose only blood he sought for his nourishment, and the one he had risked a second chance with in order to live again, wanted pancakes?

" _Thick…fluffy_ … _pankeki_ …"

He trained his left ear close to her lips to make sure he was hearing it right. Suddenly she let out an "Unf!" and her hand violently swatted across his face, and he swore, and this Sesshoumaru rarely swore now, that he felt an electrifying surge of  _reiki_  shoot from under her touch.

Kagome woke up slowly, just in time to see Sesshoumaru's white figure on the floor backing away from her, his hand clutching his face. Body lunged away, his constricted eyes fixated at her like a cat whose tail had been stepped upon by its own master… It had been a disturbing sight to wake up to but later on while eating breakfast, Kagome recalled it had been somewhat comical, to think of it.

Her mind still steeped in post-sleep fogginess, she wondered what had overcome him.

"Now what's wrong with you?"

Sesshoumaru didn't answer, his hand still glued to his cheek.

Kagome narrowed her eyes over his strange behaviour in the early morning. Then her face softened as she remembered something.

"You know it's already mid-spring," she said more kindly this time. "Is the cold still getting to you?"

At last there was a subtle shift on his features. He seemed to frown as he gathered himself on his feet and stood up.

"Who said I was cold?"

With a slightly raised eyebrow, Kagome watched as he left for the door. She was all alone in her room now, just as the sun's soft rays were filtering in through the window, warming her thick blanket. Huh. Someone's cranky in the morning, she thought as she tossed in bed, and slowly fell into a dreamless sleep. When she woke up again the sun was almost high up in the sky, but it was her off day, so it didn't really matter. What mattered was that the house was filled with an unmistakable aroma of pancakes.

"Morning," Kagome greeted lazily as she stepped into her kitchen, stretching out any kinks in her back. She bended over the stove open-mouthed, as she watched Sesshoumaru pour a ladleful of batter into the saucepan, the edges of the milky mixture hissing and bubbling into brown crispiness.

"This is weird. I don't remember any pancake recipes in those cookbooks I gave you. And ah! You're wearing the pink Hello Kitty apron I bought for you! Dang, it fits you to a T—it looks even better on you than I imagined."

Sesshoumaru gave her the side eye. She had bought the apron one day and explicitly mentioned it was for him. Of  _course_  he would wear it. Why was she filled with so much glee over him wearing a particular article of clothing?

Her extreme mood shifts were beyond his comprehension. One minute she would be yelling her head off at him to "freaking switch off the telly before I really pull the plug on you", and the next minute she would be gushing over how clean the gleaming bathroom sparkled, "just like a five-star hotel." Sesshoumaru had no idea what a five-star hotel was, but she was happy, that bit he could understand.

He watched as she walked along the kitchen counter towards the coffee machine to make herself a cup of—macchiato, he was going to guess, and indeed she pressed the button for it—coffee, and then she turned and pressed her back against the curved edge of the countertop.

"No need for cookbooks," he then told her, as he scraped the edges of the forming pancake with a spatula. "When required, I am able to tap into any branch of knowledge there is from the four corners of the world."

"For real? But the world doesn't have four corners, you know."

He frowned at her. "It does not?"

"But I guess it did occur to me that you've never actually held a spatula in your life. Or…operate a washing machine." Kagome sipped her coffee before she sighed out loud in the most dejected manner possible, before heading towards the kitchen table. "Buuuuut what's the point if you can't even summon your own memories when you need it?"

Sesshoumaru flipped the pancake.

"You require me to remember paltry incidences that hold absolutely no value whatsoever."

Kagome sat down and banged her fists against the table top.

"Paltry?! No value?! Those moments were the best times of my life!"

Sighing again, Kagome cupped her hand into her chin. She began to stare at a blank spot on the robin-egg blue wall over the counter, at the space between her rice cooker and electric kettle. For a while no one spoke, as the air sizzled and wafted with that warm, comforting fragrance.

"But you remembered me, didn't you?" she finally asked. Kagome didn't like the way the question sounded when it left her. She almost couldn't recognize her own voice. As if it had been someone else who was concerned. Someone else who wanted to know if Sesshoumaru had accepted her on a whim, and she had been but a complete stranger to his flashing eyes on that day.

Her eyes drifted to his back, and to the way he worked using only his right arm. Slowly the stack of pancakes on the plate began to rise.

"The tale of the  _gaikoku no miko_ ," he spoke at last, as he topped up another layer. Sesshoumaru glanced at her over his shoulder, swiftly catching her eyes in attention, and held her there.

"After your mysterious disappearance following Naraku's defeat, you became quite a figure of myth yourself. The birds were singing and the crickets chirped, along with the wind, spinning tales of a  _miko_  from another world sent by the gods to vanquish a great evil."

A bottle of maple syrup appeared from nowhere in his hand and he squeezed it, as the thick liquid oozed over the pancakes. It dripped over the edges of the pancake tower, slowly in sweet, cloying indulgence. He sprayed some cream from a can. He topped two halves of a strawberry. "But the details had been nothing but outlandish. In one version you were supposedly 20 feet tall and stooped like a crane. Yes, I remember you quite a bit."

"Y-you mean I became a legend?!"

" _Myth_. Not many have actually seen you. I did, and I dismissed the tales as hogwash."

"Nooo Sesshoumaru, tell me more!" And Kagome had scrambled over to him now, tugging Sesshoumaru by his apron front. He backed away against the counter, warily reminded of the sharp spike of  _reiki_  her touch had rewarded him this morning.

"Tell me, tell meee! Did they say I was from the future? That I crept out from the well like Sadako? That I could shoot magical arrows from my bow with no training whatsoever?"

Sesshoumaru ignored her and looked away from the almost rabid young woman hassling at him for answers.

"No longer about your comrades now, is it?"

"Please tell meeee, Sesshoumaru!"

He managed to worm away from her, grabbing the plate quickly and setting it down on the table.

"Eat first," he said.

Kagome plopped back on her chair, sighing again and again as she grabbed her fork, digging into her thick and fluffy breakfast, just like the way she dreamed of it, except that the dream was now lost on her.

" _Itadakimasu_ …" she muttered, like a child denied of her toys.

Sesshoumaru pulled out a kitchen chair and sat across her. He mimicked her earlier pose, hand propped on his chin, and studied in enrapture as she gobbled through her food.

Yes, if there was something that his heart was certain, and his heart was no longer with him but buried in the middle of that deep, deep forest, it was that nothing pleased him more now than to see her eat, and he could sit for hours if needed to, just watching her, just watching her eat a stack of pancakes.

A corner of his lips pulled, subtle as a feather and it felt like he had finally understood the meaning of his new existence, sitting in Kagome's kitchen, in a Hello Kitty apron…

" _Bon appetit,_ " Sesshoumaru replied, and suddenly those words didn't sound so foreign anymore.

_To be continued!_

**[A/N:**

_Gaikoku no Miko:_  basically means foreign priestess.

**Haiiii. If I were to strictly follow my story plan, this chapter would be about that backstory about Sess and Kag's eventful meeting, but writing it got me so intense because I couldn't put it in words—that I put it away almost together. Classic case of writer's block. So I skipped that part for a while, without sacrificing the plot, and thus in this piece we find out Sess** **_does_ ** **remember who she is, although in fragments, and some light is shed on what Sesshoumaru identifies himself to her. Also, how I wish in hell I could wake up to someone flipping pancakes for me… *cries in silence]**


	3. Pancakes

"…what do you think, Kagome-sama?"

Kagome plucked out from her daze and stared at Amari, who was throwing her a questioning smile. She remembered the younger  _miko_  had been talking about vacation trips, about places in her bucket list. What exactly was the question posed to her, though?

It felt like she had been sleeping with her eyes open, while assembling prayer beads together with her partner inside the shrine. There had been nothing but a static roar playing at the back of her mind while her fingers moved in auto-pilot.

Kagome ducked her head and clapped her hands together in apology.

"Amari-chan, would you mind repeating yourself? Haaaa I've been really feeling under the weather lately."

Amari giggled. "You know, it's not just today. I've noticed you've been kinda out of it for these past few months."

Kagome's eyes widened as she leaned forward. "What? For the past few months? That's stretching it a little."

"Haven't you looked at the mirror lately? You look like a raccoon." Then Amari changed her tone and quickly added, "But a  _cute_  raccoon!"

"There's nothing admirable about looking like a raccoon!" an assertive voice suddenly snapped from behind.

Both women quivered in response at the abrupt appearance of the head priest into the room. Amari looked especially pink in the face, as she peered at Jyohaku looming behind Kagome.

"I'll—I'll go get more beads from the storeroom!" Amari suddenly blurted, running out in a flurry. A couple of beads rolled off the table, bouncing onto the floor. Kagome sighed as she snatched them quickly, before turning to acknowledge the man.

Standing ramrod-straight at more than 6 foot, the head priest of Yukino-jingu easily towered Kagome. His large hands clasped behind his back, accentuating his wide shoulders. As usual the corners of his mouth was downturned, as if everything around him constantly displeased him.

The first time she laid her eyes on him, Kagome admitted feeling intimidated under his appraising gaze and overbearing aura—he was someone whom you knew was in the same room, because the air would suddenly feel constricted. Most priests she'd seen often held a gentle, reassuring demeanour, but not the tanned, brusque Jyohaku. Working closely with him as an apprentice for 3 years when she first joined the shrine, Kagome became the only  _miko_ -in-training who managed to persevere through his harsh discipline, whilst discovering that his tough appearance was just a front.

The stiff layers of  _jōe_  and  _kammuri_  hat he'd worn during the new year had disappeared now that the season was over, replaced by softer, well-worn robes. They hinted nothing of his strong, muscular physique—in fact prior to being a priest, Jyohaku actually used to be a professional wrestler. (Kagome had accidentally discovered this gem while coming upon an old bodybuilding magazine in his desk.)

Kagome gave him a respectful bow before returning to her seat. He folded his arms tightly in response.

"Do you know why you're always tired nowadays?" he asked in his usual gruff voice.

Kagome sighed. So he had been eavesdropping on her conversation with Amari. Well, one lengthy lecture coming right up.

"It's just some lack of sleep," she replied casually, stringing the beads together. She patted her shoulder with a fist. "Maybe a trip to an  _onsen_  sounds like a good vacation!"

Jyohaku strode forward and slammed a hand on the table. The beads rattled, and Kagome yelped, pushing them away from the edge. She flashed an angry look at him—he really was not as cultured as the other priests.

"It's because of that  _ghost_  you decided to bind onto yourself," Jyohaku hissed, his eyes narrowed like stilts. The word "ghost" seemed to taste like bile in his mouth. "I'm still in utter disbelief, to this very day, that you brought that bloody spirit into your home. You're still keeping mum over why you did it. Do you know what happens when you get involved with these other-wordly beings?"

"Amari-chan's taking a super long time, ain't she? Jyohaku-sama, why don't you grab a chair and help me with this while you're at it?"

"Sometimes I don't know  _what_  is in that little head of yours," he continued, but he did seated himself anyway, as his fingers started working with the beads in quick, deft movements. "By now you must already be aware of the consequences. These things feed and thrive on your life force, and once they're attached on you, they never let go."

Attached on me? That guy only knows how to watch television, Kagome thought to herself, picking a black glistening bead, glumly. That, plus he does the chores perfectly. Besides Sesshoumaru's not a spirit anymore. Jyohaku's gonna sever my head if he knows that, though.

"But from what I know," Jyohaku said again, as a smug smile consumed his face, "if these spirits are good in one thing, is that they're able to predict lottery numbers. Well, Higurashi. If you're planning to sire one, you might as well make full use of it." He nudged an elbow. "What say you? Just go ahead and ask for a list of random numbers and go down to the lottery store—who knows you're able to strike the first prize!"

Kagome narrowed her eyes.

"Head priest or not, you can be really ridiculous at times," Kagome muttered, and she was met with an incredulous laugh from Jyohaku's side.

Kagome took the fruit knife and swiped the blade against her index finger in one swift move. A cut appeared, and a drop of blood slowly took form. It trickled into a bowl of murky water that was infused with bone powder, dirt, sandalwood and lime, a dash of frankincense, among other things.

She carried the bowl carefully to the kitchen exit and called out to Sesshoumaru, who was transfixed before the television as usual, watching closely an episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not.

"Sesshoumaru! You've been watching the telly when I woke up this morning, and you're still at it. Don't you feel hungry?"

He ignored her and she harrumped. So the Loch Ness monster is apparently more interesting, eh?

"Sesshoumaru, get your bloody ass here for dinner right  _now_!"

He finally glanced over his shoulder, his eyes giving her a steely stare.

She entered a dimly-lit room. At the corner hung a small, strange altar. A pair of candles in glasses lit from each side. Kagome placed the bowl between the candles, before proceeding to burn some jock-sticks. She waved them about, dispelling the first wisps of smoke before placing it in a holder behind a small urn. Her hands clasped in prayer, she then chanted a mantra, her lips whispering intelligible words.

She did this ritual each time she needed to feed him, and she would do so around two times each week. Even though he had a body now, he still was neither human nor spirit, and did not require actual food for his sustenance. Kagome took a step backward, giving Sesshoumaru some space.

" _Bon appétit_ ," she said.

Sesshoumaru touched the bowl with both hands.

".. _Bon appétit_ ," he repeated, enunciating each foreign syllable slowly as they rolled off his tongue.

Kagome nodded with a smile, larger than usual. "Yes, it's like the French version of  _itadakimasu_."

"French?"

"Yeah it's another language. Why don't you start drinking now, huh?" Kagome urged, and he could detect that hint of exasperation in her voice.

"I know what it means. I interpret words through their intent, and not from the way they are shaped."

Sesshoumaru tipped the bowl to his mouth. The shadows from the candlelight waved gently on the walls in the semi-dark room. Kagome tapped her foot, then started to pace around, her hands clasped behind her back.

"So Sesshoumaru," she started, "I actually have some questions I've been meaning to ask and…" Kagome swiped her hair behind her ear, feeling nervous for some strange reason. This is it, she thought. This is the part where I dig in him for answers. Something I should have done ages ago. I need to know the truth.

"I want to know what happened to my friends way back in the feudal era. More specifically, to your half-brother Inuyasha…"

Sesshoumaru choked on his offering. When Kagome looked up, she saw a pair of bright, dancing eyes, its colour almost mimicking the candlelight.

"Inuyasha? I haven't that name in a…." His voice trailed off, and he shook his head slowly. "In a supremely long time."

"Well, what do you remember?" Kagome questioned him, more directly this time as she stood closer to him. "The last time you saw him—what was he doing?"

"No," he said curtly.

"No?"

"I am not going to tell you anything."

Kagome staggered backwards. "What?  _Why?_ "

"Because I'm unable to remember."

There was something about the casual air in his tone, his indifferent attitude towards the whole subject. It was probably nothing to him, some old, obscure memory at the back of his mind, but it was  _everything_  to her. This was the closest she could get in receiving closure about her inconclusive past. To just leave everything behind without ever seeing her comrades ever again, without hearing their voices…

Did they lead happy, meaningful lives? Did they miss her? Did Inuyasha—

Kagome could feel something thick rising in her throat, and when she spoke again, her voice was wavering and the pits of her stomach felt horrible.

"That's enough," she muttered, grabbing the bowl away from Sesshoumaru. He stared at her in silent puzzlement.

"You're angry," he said, as she was leaving the room. "I can sense it."

"Doesn't take a genius to guess that."

Kagome pulled the sliding door until only a few inches were left, just enough for him to see one side of her face.

"You're not to leave this room until you decide to tell me everything. Understand? And no more dinner for you."

The door shut with a loud thud. Perhaps it could be louder if she intended to. Sesshoumaru gazed around the room. It used to be another former pigsty, holding nothing but a bookshelf, old furniture and some dusty boxes—things Kagome had referred to as junk. They belonged to the previous owner of the house, an old  _miko_  who no longer lived in this world. The books had been interesting, some collection of poems and classic literary fiction, although he did not bother with the religious texts. He had placed Kagome's cookbooks in the same shelf too, the ones she had given him.

The short curtains floated softly as a chilly draught filtered in. It was no longer snowing in Tokyo but the coldness still seeped in through his feet and into the bones of his spine. Sesshoumaru sat down against the wall, and brought his knees together. He thought about what she said. About needing to tell her "everything."

"I can't tell you," he said to no one in particular. "Everything feels like a frozen block of ice."

Kagome stood before the bathroom mirror. She washed her face, wincing from the cold water then stared at her reflection.

God, she thought to herself. I really need to calm myself down. It's not like it's his fault he doesn't remember. But for how long?

She patted her face dry with a towel, then rubbed her soft cheek, her eyes still etched on the mirror.

"I absolutely do not look like a raccoon."

A few minutes, the door slid open softly. Kagome's head peeked in, her disconsolate face slightly illuminated with an orange hue from the lighting. She saw him crouching at the corner of the room like a poor prisoner.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean to be impatient. It's just that I got overly excited. Especially when I saw you again for the first time at that bridge. I think, just maybe, you've been a ghost for a very long time."

"Maybe," Sesshoumaru whispered back, but he didn't look at her.

"I won't ask you again until you're ready. I promise."

"Wait," she heard his voice again. Kagome swiftly opened the door wider, the flames shining in her eyes.

Sesshoumaru came forward. He peered at her from behind the door, his eyes strangely round and pleading, and for a short moment, Kagome was suddenly reminded how he used to be, after all, a  _dog_  demon.

"I want my bowl back."

Peeved, Kagome pulled the door and shut it in his face.

_Wait for the next chapter!_

**[A/N: Hola, welcome to the end of the 2** **nd** **chapter! Thanks for making your time to read! Just a short commentary on this fic. I live in Southeast Asia where belief in the supernatural is very strong, even in these modern times. Siring spirits for one's gain, whether for wealth or getting extra help in scoring that one chick, although a hushed taboo, is still commonplace. We call it black magic, and although I wouldn't push it so much as to say Kagome's practising it, even though she is on a subtle level, it somewhat sets the background for this story.**

**Kagome is kinda angsty here. Although she hasn't explained how and why yet—we're aware one of the reasons she has Sesshoumaru with her, is so she can get answers. So he pretty much fails his purpose here, LOL.**

**Sesshoumaru is decidedly air-headed and mellow at the start of the story. As Kagome mentioned, he's prolly been a ghost for a long time and needs some time adapting, but how did our fearsome, invincible demon lord become a ghost at the first place? I guess you just gotta stick to the story. Huahuahua…**


	4. I Just Wanted to Feel the Wind in My Hair

**I Just Wanted to Feel the Wind in My Hair**

"Hey Kagome-sama, do you have someone in your life? Like a boyfriend, maybe?"

Kagome tore the packet of fish food and sprinkled it into the  _koi_  pond. Both she and Amari were kneeling at its edge, feeding the  _koi and_ checking up on its water quality as part of their shrine duties.

Kagome watched as the horde of fishes swarmed forward and started jostling for the pellets floating on the surface, their gaping thick mouths gobbling as much as they could manage. A pair of golden koi swam at a quieter part of the pond, slowly eating at whatever food that had drifted to them. They were the biggest, and the oldest fish in the lot, and had always been paired up with each other for as long as she remembered.

"Boyfriend?" Kagome spoke, addressing Amari's earlier question. She gave a self-deprecating laugh. "Is there even someone who's interested in me?"

Amari sprinkled more of the fish food. "Ah, there's no need to be humble about it you know."

Kagome sighed. "I have been dating a couple of guys on and off, but it doesn't seem to work out at the end of the day. So I've just decided to remain single and happy for the time being."

 _Yeah right_ , her thoughts prodded her.  _Isn't getting a new boyfriend like your constant new-year resolution?_

Amano glanced at her and pouted. "I'm not trying to be a busy-body or anything. I'm just asking because…well…"

Kagome quirked an eyebrow at her. "What, Amari-chan?"

"Well, I have an older brother who's been single for a long time and our parents have really been pushing for him to get married…"

"Geez! And you think I'm a good candidate?"

Amari laughed. "Why not? You're like a good sister to me. Of  _course_ , I would want you as my sister-in-law!"

Kagome waved her hands in horror. It wasn't that the idea of being related to Amari that scared her, but having to be match-made with a guy who  _had_  to get married ASAP—that was something different entirely. She was _not_  ready to tie the knot anytime soon!

"No, Amari-chan! Please don't think of such things about me! H-how about you? Surely someone cute as you must be attached."

Amari sighed into the pond, looking at the sad reflection of hers on the rippling green water.

"There's someone I like, but he doesn't even glance twice my way."

"Ah, that's sad. Unrequited love is always sad."

"Have you ever been in that horrible situation before, Kagome-sama?"

"Horrible situation?" A gruff voice spoke up. "What horrible situation?"

Amari and Kagome yelped at the sudden male voice that interrupted them. With shuddering breaths they dared to peek over their shoulders, meeting the cold gaze of the head priest. Why? Why was he always catching up on them just when they were taking a quick break…

"J-J-Jyohaku-sama!" Amari-chan eeped, her hands fluttering like a bird each time she bumped into him—or was it the other way round?

The ladies stood up and turned towards him with a perfunctory bow, hiding their broken smiles.

"Well?" Jyohaku pressed, his arms poised behind his back as usual. "I heard there was a horrible situation. If there is something happening within the shrine, then I have the right to know—"

"Not within the shrine," Kagome muttered. "But within our lives."

Jyohaku glared at her then turned to Amari, whose shoulders were shaking in silence.

"Is there something horrible going in your life right now, Kirihata?"

Amari gasped and glanced up at him, struggling to answer. Why would he suddenly be interested to know about her personal life? The head priest  _never_  took any concern with her and…

Jyohaku's eyebrows lowered, making his already grim face even darker. "Why is your face all beet-root red? Did you eat something you were not supposed to?"

"H-huh? It's red? Like I'm blushing? Ah—but I'm not really blushing, it must be the heat—"

Beside her Kagome looked elsewhere and sighed, wishing to get away.  _One is a bumbling mess, and the other is as thick as a brick._

Her eyes absent-mindedly sauntered to the hedged fence built around Yukino-jingu's premises. She saw a shuffle of white against the green, as though a person was peering in from outside. Kagome squinted further in half-disbelief, hoping she was wrong, that maybe it was her imagination—she didn't want to deal with any funny business at this time of the day—and then she saw his golden eyes poking through the holes in the fence, and her heart  _lurched_.

"Holy macaroni with pepperoni!" Kagome immediately turned to Jyohaku and Amari who stood frozen, staring at her. "G-guys, I just remembered, I have an emergency situation at home and I gotta go right now—"

" _Higurashi!_ " Jyohaku bellowed after her but she had scrambled off, dashing out of the shrine as fast as her legs could carry her, around the fence, until she caught up the sight of him. Sesshoumaru. Standing there in public, in broad daylight. He looked as surprised as her, and her eyes flicked to the small urn tucked under his arms.

_My god, he brought the urn with him!_

"Sesshoumaru!" she hissed. "What the  _hell_ is this? Why are you doing here?"

"I…" Sesshoumaru started but she cut into this words before he could explain himself.

"You're not supposed to be outside! What if people see you? And I can't believe you actually brought along that thing with you…"

"It contains the soil of my origins. I cannot be separated from it."

"I know, Sesshoumaru. I know. God!"

He frowned, indignant, refusing to meet her eyes. "The black box is not working. You caused that. There is nothing else of interest in the house."

"That's because the electricity bill went up the roof, thanks to you!"

"I checked the roof. It is fine."

Kagome clicked her tongue in frustration, and pulled on his sleeve. Sesshoumaru immediately jerked away.

"What's wrong with you now? Hurry, I'm sending you home. You're riding pillion on my bicycle. Why did you come here anyway?"

"I was curious to see you fare in your work environment."

"You mean to say you were stalking me."

Sesshoumaru sat gingerly at the back of her bicycle. He studied the two-wheeled contraption with interest, then wobbled with his life when she started to move. "Grab on to me," she had said, but the memories of getting zapped with  _reiki_  were still fresh in his mind. His hand quickly caught on the handlebar behind his seat.

Kagome shook her head as she cycled their way home, grateful that it was a weekday and the streets were almost empty. What if someone took a picture of him and uploaded it on social media? What with his long silver hair and elfin ears, and the Hello Kitty apron that didn't look as funny as it did anymore when she first bought it? She sighed and looked back at him.

"Hey. Do you even realize the gravity of the situation? I'm sorry, but you gotta accept this. You're a paranormal being, Sesshoumaru. Things like you don't go walking around in the neighbourhood,  _ever_."

When they got back home, the first thing Kagome did was to plug the television back, and quieted him down with an episode of  _Gaki no Tsukai_. She returned the urn to its proper place, placing it back at the altar.

 _He can leave the house now. It means he's gained strength._  She bit her finger, trying to muster a deep breath to compose herself. She glanced at Sesshoumaru outside, who sat motionless before the screen, not laughing at the zany antics on the TV show when anyone normal would.

_What if he tries to leave the house again? He knows nothing about how the world works._

"I'm going back to the shrine," she told him after she had washed her face. "Please don't leave the house again without my permission, okay? And take care of yourself." Kagome paused. She was starting to sound like a domineering mother.

Sesshoumaru said nothing. He had not spoken a word the whole journey back until then.

Back in the shrine, Kagome fingered the empty amulets in the souvenir store that were yet to be customized and blessed. They took the shape of a small empty vial, looped with a piece of cord. She pocketed one in her pants, tossing a coin into the cashier register.

"So what was the emergency back home, Kagome-sama?" Amari asked while they were closing the shrine for the day. "I've never seen you so flustered before."

"I uh, forgot to turn off the tap."

"Oh dear!"

"Please sweep the floors faster, ladies!" the head priest barked near them. "Dusk is falling!"

Sesshoumaru stared at the amulet that Kagome had placed in his palm.

"I put the soil from the urn inside it," she told him. Seeing the quizzical frown on his face, she explained further. "It means that you don't need to bring that urn around with you when you go out. Here, let me put it on for you—"

"No, do  _not_  touch me."

Kagome narrowed her eyes. "I noticed it for some time now. It's like you have some sort of aversion when it comes to being touched. Don't want my grubby human fingers on you, is that it?"

"I will keep this with me." Sesshoumaru grasped the amulet. "How far will this sustain me?"

"I don't think you can go around too far with that amulet. And besides I won't allow it. It's a dangerous world out there, Sesshoumaru."

"Is there anything more than dangerous than a  _daiyoukai_  who seeks to attain knowledge?"

Kagome wanted to tell him in the 21st century a  _daiyoukai_  was nothing but a figment of folklore, but decided he would learn this himself. She twisted her mouth and sat beside him, watching another episode of Ripley's on the screen, something about a washed-up mermaid's skeleton.

"Give me time. I'll make further arrangements for you."

"Further arrangements. Such as?"

"Such as sorting out your face. And getting new clothes. I was just thinking about it. I can't keep you locked in here forever. You've been always a creature of freedom. Naturally you'll be curious." She hugged her knees and sighed. "I must have overlooked this part when I did the after-ritual. I guess I must identify you now as a proper person with proper needs, just that they differ slightly from us humans."

"Just like I was once, five hundred years ago."

She nodded and hung her head. She didn't want to think about it.

Minutes later, as if having ascertained something, Kagome straightened her legs and stood up, her knees creaking. "Well, I'm going to bed now. So goodnight."

"Thank you."

Kagome stopped and stared back at him. Back then being polite was never one of Sesshoumaru's stronger points. Ah, why was she still thinking about the past? It was clear the Sesshoumaru then was not the same Sesshoumaru now.

 _A brand new person._  That's what she had told him that day. Otherwise she wouldn't be able to nag and hassle at him like she always did, would she? And he would never listen to her. Although sometimes, that stubborn streak still remained as strong.

"Anytime."

**_To be continued!_ **


	5. The Look of Love

**The Look of Love**

Kagome leafed through the old magazine, a large lopsided grin etched on her face. A particular page turned up, showcasing an interview with a popular wrestler. A gaudy red mask donned over his eyes, his blonde hair tumbling down to his shoulders.

The  _miko_ snickered as she read through the humorous interview that dug into the wrestler's personal life.

 _'What is your most favourite thing in the world?'_  was one of the silly questions posed. ' _Cruising through the Djitsun highway towards Aoyama during sunset_ ,' the wrestler had answered, ' _It has to be during sunset. And it has to be_   _in_   _my trusty old Yamaha SR500 bike._ '

"Higurashi!" Jyohaku called at the door entrance. Kagome yelped and hid the magazine in reflex. She didn't even hear the  _shoji_ door to his office slide open.

Jyohaku strode towards her, quietly seething before he snatched the magazine from her hands, throwing it back in his drawer and slamming it shut.

"How many times have I told you—"

"To not snoop around your things, I know. But the magazine was on your table and…"

Jyohaku sat heavily in his chair and interlocked his fingers in a steeple, giving her a hard stare. "So tell me. Did you come into my office simply to welcome yourself to the contents on my table?"

Kagome sat before him, gazing at her shoes. "I apologize, Jyohaku-sama. I actually came here seeking for your advice."

"If you seek advice, then go call The Samaritans' hotline."

"Oh Jyohaku-sama. You're the head  _priest_. At least impart me with your wisdom."

"So? Wisdom is something you gain from experience and acute observation, regardless of your vocation. And it's not like I became a priest out of my own calling…"

He stopped himself before more words could spill from his mouth, but she already knew what he meant. Yukino-jingu was a family shrine, and as per tradition, would be passed down the generations. The former head priest had been Jyohaku's father, and when the old man had succumbed to pancreatic cancer, Jyohaku's successful wrestling career too met its demise.

"It's frustrating, isn't it?" Kagome said. "To have that period of happiness just suddenly snatched away from you, with a cruel twist of fate. At one point, you thought it might have lasted forever. But I guess the gods had a different plan." Then she looked up and smiled at him. "But I believe, no matter how short-lived that happiness was, it must have taught us something. And it was definitely worth it, for what it was."

Jyohaku studied his right hand, at the coarse lines running across his palms, the hard calluses on his fingers. He clutched his fist. He was not sure what the  _miko_  had went through, and as much as she was decidedly childish at times, he had figured very earlier on it was just a façade to hide the real tenacity sparkling in her eyes. Which was why she had persevered well through her time in the shrine when the others had quickly left after they joined. That Amari too. He would give her a few more months before she decided to call in quits—always quaking in her knees every time she saw him.

"Well, exactly what kind of advice are you seeking?" Jyohaku asked her. "I cannot promise I can give you the best…"

"Jyohaku-sama, do you believe that people will change when they have power stripped of them?"

He regarded her more seriously now, a frown pinched between his thick eyebrows. Where exactly was she heading, with such a question?

"Stripped of power? It's hard to say, but if you can garner from the opposite, then I suppose, yes."

"From the opposite?"

" _Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power,_ " he quoted. "Abraham Lincoln. The possession of power is definitely a dangerous thing to a weak mind. If you ever have a chance to wield it, in whatever context it may be, then tread wisely, Higurashi."

Kagome's eyes locked to his. He knew she understood, but to what degree that she could apply in her life, he didn't know. And then he saw briefly that fire, the tenacious one, the one that sometimes frightened even him, but strangely had intrigued his old man. Just thinking about what happened during that fateful exorcism was more than enough. Quickly he cleared his throat, taking interest in the accounts book on the table.

"Any further questions, Higurashi?"

"Well yeah," Kagome said. Her lopsided smile was back on her face, that hard glint in her eyes gone. She scratched her temple shyly. "It's a pretty strange question, but what kind of man's shirt size do you wear?"

Sesshoumaru hung near the window as he usually did every day, sometimes for hours on end. He still was finding difficulty reading the digital clock on the wall, even though Kagome had painstakingly taught him. That the number for '7" in front would mean she would be home anytime soon. Well, it was showing "7", and then the sun had set and it wasn't showing "7"anymore, but Kagome was still not home yet.

Did she know she  _needed_  to return home on time? Sesshoumaru wondered. The breach in distance was too wide, for too long. She was too far away, from him.

An indiscernible, heavy sensation would grow in his chest each time she left for work, and would only be appeased when she returned to him. Television sometimes made him forget, but only for too long. It was as if there was another creature inside him, that thrived on their physical proximity and could only be comforted by the sound of her voice. In Kagome's absence, it would fidget and grate on his being like a bad toothache.

He had never related this to her. She had thought all along that he was attached to the soil inside the urn, the one from under the bridge. It was not adequate. He sought his energy from her being, from her  _blood_.

Sesshoumaru had learned the hard way after the first day of the after-ritual when she had left for the shrine, and it had hurt him so much that he couldn't even move on the floor.

The days were getting better now. He could get by more easily, live in that discomfort, but still…

His head craned forward at the window, eyes fixed at the pathway leading towards the house. Her familiar shuffling footsteps, her soft scent, it was reaching him. Immediately he saw her—Kagome toddling home, carrying bags with her. The creature inside him stopped thrashing, lulled by her appearance.

Quickly Sesshoumaru rushed to his usual spot, the one before the television.

"I'm hoooome!" Kagome called out, her keys jingling in the entrance. She closed the door behind her, and greeted him with a large smile.

Sesshoumaru said nothing, seemingly invested in a drama series.

Her muscles groaned in agony, running after work to the nearby Isetan departmental store, but Kagome couldn't wait any longer. She raised the shopping bags in her arms. "Look what I got for you, Sesshoumaru! Come on, see what's in there!"

She removed the clothes from the packaging and Sesshoumaru felt the materials through his fingers. Kagome laughed at the way he smelled through each of them. He had reacted the same way too when she first bought the Hello Kitty apron.

"Do you like them?"

"It is not silk, but it will do."

"Oh shucks. I'm sorry I can't afford you a silk kimono. But first I have to teach you how to wear a shirt and a pair of trousers."

"Hmm," he said.

"I think you'll look very handsome indeed," Kagome said, unbuttoning a shirt.

Sesshoumaru gave her a quiet glance. "A  _miko_  should not harbour such thoughts."

"What?" Kagome replied, almost laughing. "I'm not some kinda old-fashioned, goody-two-shoes priestess. If I was, I wouldn't have prayed to Inugami and sacrificed a-" She stopped herself, biting her lip. "Anyway what I mean is, you  _are_  handsome. The most gorgeous  _youkai_  I've ever met. And trust me, I've seen a whole damn lot of  _youkai_  for an average person."

His lips quirked into a small smile, as she draped the shirt around him on his shoulders. "Even more than my half-brother?" he mused, just for the sake.

Kagome shook her head. She couldn't believe she was having this conversation with him.

Slowly she smoothed her hand down his clothed chest, absorbing his warmth into her skin. She could feel his steady heartbeat.

 _An actual, living pulse. A real person_. _Sesshoumaru. And you're here now, breathing, existing because of me._

"Stupid," she whispered. "I told you, you were the most gorgeous."

It wasn't him. This Sesshoumaru would never be bothered by her personal opinion of him. But the creature in his chest, the one that danced at the mere sight of her, had swelled up so much upon her soft whisper that even he, Sesshoumaru was finding it hard to breathe.

**_To be continued…_ **

A/N: How could Kagome stay so calm while putting her hand on Sesshoumaru's chest? Even he is having a hard time XD


	6. Downtown

**Downtown**

**A/N: Heya, this is one of the chapters I've been raring to write. Kagome finally takes Sesshoumaru out downtown!**

The weather was good. The skies were devoid of clouds, stretched blue as wide as the eyes could see and the sun was bright—but it was a good kind of bright, and not the headache-inducing kind that sometimes pierced through the windows and into his eyes.

Sesshoumaru hung the clothes to dry on the laundry line behind the house, securing them with wooden pegs. He could hear the theme song of a popular Japanese drama series blaring from the television inside. He needed to complete this task on hand,  _now_.

" _Always whip the laundry before you hang it to dry!_ " her words echoed into his mind. " _That way they won't get wrinkled!_ "

He whipped the shirt with a startling vengeance.

"Ahhhhh, good morning!" A cheery, feminine voice broke out from the back door. It could only belong to one person—the mistress of the house. "Oh, you're doing laundry! Such an efficient housemate if I say so myself."

Sesshoumaru gave a slight glance. Kagome had an extra-large smile on her face, the one that meant an agenda up her sleeves.

"No need to cook today, alright?" she told him. "We'll be having lunch outside!"

"Noted."

"Yes! I'm going to bring you out to town today! And hopefully we'll get you some new clothes."

Sesshoumaru said nothing. He reached into the laundry basket, and Kagome's new expensive lace bra trailed from his grasp.

"Hey!" Kagome called out. "What did I say about washing my undergarments?! Hand wash only!"

Awhile later, Kagome drummed her fingers on the table top, looking at the wall clock. It was almost noon, and the sandwich breakfast she had two hours ago was paying no justice to her growling stomach.

Her bedroom door opened, and Sesshoumaru stepped out.

Kagome whistled. "Well, someone's looking  _lit_."

Dressed in a lightweight sweatshirt and a pair of joggers that she had bought for him a week ago, they accentuated Sesshoumaru's tall, slim build, the top fitting his well-rounded shoulders just nicely. It was amazing how a simple change of clothes had altered his outward impression, so much so that upon a single glance he looked almost like a regular human male. Well, almost.

She shushed Sesshoumaru back into the room, and pulled him before the dresser mirror.

"There's just a teensy-weensy problem," Kagome said, peering from behind. "Look into the mirror. Do you see what I see?"

Sesshoumaru raised his head, and squinted condescendingly at his reflection. He preferred his traditional robes than anything else—at least he appeared regal and self-important in them. "I see a ruthless, dangerous  _daiyoukai_  out to conquer this world that he has set his eyes upon."

Kagome laughed nervously. "Yes, and he needs some form of disguise if he intends to go shopping, doesn't he?"

And suddenly she yanked down a beanie from nowhere down his face, and the pair resisted each other in a peculiar struggle, as Sesshoumaru worked to remove the offending piece of material from his eyes.

" _Release_  me this instant!"

"You need to hide your pointy ears and your light hair and those funny markings on your scary demon face…"

"Why should I? And those marking are not to be made light of; they are bearings of the noble  _inu-youkai_  clan, of which only esteemed members of the aristocracy are…"

An hour later, Sesshoumaru found himself seated in a café, staring at an abstract painting on the wall as Kagome scarfed on her fish and chips in a gluttony manner. Beanie on his head.

"Ohomon, wa dee wong fesh?" Kagome remarked through big spoon-fuls of fried dory.  _Oh come on, why the long face?_ She promptly swallowed her food. "I know you're not used to it–but look on the bright side, you can walk through the crowd without anyone getting a heart attack. That's good for a start, isn't it?"

Sesshoumaru lashed her a glare. "I have never found the need to blend myself among humans. And I never will."

Kagome pouted and poked her fish with her fork. "Well you gotta now, if you intend to go outside."

After her meal was done, she went to the cashier to pay the bill. Sesshoumaru had picked nothing from the menu, and whether it was because he really found no interest in actual food, or that he was too in a surly mood to eat, she wasn't quite sure.

When she turned back, he was gone. Kagome rushed out from the café in panic.

She saw him standing in a middle of a group of students some distance away. All of them were crowding around him in open-mouthed awe, whispering in amazement. His beanie was past gone and his long, silver hair was cascading down his shoulders in proud waves.

"Crap!" Kagome made a mad dash towards the group, squeezing desperately through their bodies until she finally got a hold of him.

"You look so cool!" a boy gushed.

"Your ears are like the real deal! It's crazy!" another girl cried.

"Sir, what character are you cosplaying? Or is it like an original that you designed?" another boy enquired.

Kagome's face twitched as she faced the hoard of students. "H-hold on. You guys think he's cosplaying?"

"Well, duh!" said the girl who had complimented on Sesshoumaru's ears. "This town is famous for its cosplayers roaming around the street. After all, the Tokyo Cosplay Committee is just a few blocks away!"

Sesshoumaru and Kagome stared at each other.

"You mentioned people would drop their things and scurry for safety at the actual sight of this Sesshoumaru," he said.

"Is that why you removed your beanie? So you could test that theory?"

"Indeed. Although it seems to have backfired—they actually seem impressed."

"Hey! We wanna take a selfie with you!" the girl chirped again.

"Well I'll be. Thank god for cosplay," Kagome muttered, dragging him away from the students as they called out in protest.

They strolled along the shops, looking for a suitable place to shop for clothes. Suitable meant quiet and discreet, away from the astonished reactions of passer-bys that rewarded their every step. Kagome could only be comforted by a single thought.  _At least they think he's still human. Weirdo or not._

"What is a "SALE"?" Sesshoumaru enquired, pointing to a large sign outside a Uniqlo store.

"It means the clothes are selling at a discount."

"What is a discount?"

But Sesshoumaru was mumbling to himself, as he strode into the store on his own, leaving a peeved Kagome behind.

"I shall acquire this, and this and this..."

"Hello mister," Kagome snapped around the bale of clothes Sesshoumaru was tossing in her arms as he rounded all the displays, "do you think this is your father's shop?!"

"I was unaware shopping could be such a…" Sesshoumaru chose his words carefully as he continued down the redbrick-paved streets, a panting Kagome behind as she lugged his shopping bags, "… _therapeutic_  experience."

"Of course it's therapeutic," Kagome wheezed, "when you're not the one paying for it!"

"I see a peculiar structure in the far distance. Enlighten me,  _miko_ ," Sesshoumaru went, pointing ahead.  _If it's another sale sign, I swear I'm gonna run amok,_ Kagome thought. She looked up, and her line of sight met the large, conspicuous steel rim of a Ferris Wheel from afar, its lights softly blinking in warm nostalgia.

"There's an amusement park up front," she said, and she smiled, her weariness disappearing. "I haven't there gone there since high school."

Kagome and Sesshoumaru sat across each other inside the Ferris Wheel. She was flat against her seat, collecting her breath, the shopping bags huddled at the empty spot beside her. As if the clothes were not enough, she had brought him to a few game stalls earlier on, and in each stall they had won a prize. Now she had  _two_  jumbo-sized teddy bears to hog home.  _Is he just lucky or what?_

Sesshoumaru was distracted in his own silence. His eyes soaked in the breath-taking scenery outside of the bustling metropolis fringed by the dark blue ocean, a few centuries too late.

She stared at his hand glued against the window glass. At his deadly-looking finger-claws.

"Do you mind if I ask something?" she said. Sesshoumaru gave no response. "Why were you haunting that old bridge?"

His fingers twitched, and he blinked. "I was waiting," he answered after some time.

 _Waiting for what? Waiting for who?_ Kagome wanted to ask. Darn it, there were so many other questions she had. Questions he wouldn't answer properly. No, he seemed rather content to not remember anything….or maybe, he actually  _did_  remember. If that was the case, then he was wrapping her around his finger, wasn't he, occasionally throwing her bits of information here and there as and when he saw fit.

She didn't know what was the truth anymore, or if there was any point in seeking it. Suddenly Kagome felt as though it wasn't her who had been in control all along, but rather he, Sesshoumaru, who had her waiting by his hand…

Kagome watched the pink sky, the fading sun heading towards the horizon. "I guess it's pretty late. And we've already got the clothes you wanted." She laid back, staring at the steel ceiling, but not really staring.

"You know the last time I took this Ferris Wheel?" she spoke again. "I was only fifteen, and I was by myself. Ha. Who the hell goes to the amusement park alone to take the Ferris Wheel? Anyway my point is, the scenery outside the window never changes. The buildings near the sea line may be new, but the way the sky changes its colour, and the way the sea glitters when the sun dips down—it has always been the same."

"This Sesshoumaru requires to feed," he then said.

"Huh?" Kagome went, sitting straight up. "I have some donuts I bought just now…"

"Not your kind of feed," he said, "but my kind."

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him in disbelief. "There is a proper time and a proper place for that. Goodness, if someone were to see us, they'll think we're into some kinky business. Ah, you don't even know what kinky means."

Sesshoumaru gave her the side eye, the one she had come to be completely immune to. "I know what kinky means. Remember how I said that I interpret words through their intent."

"Oh shut up."

Kagome flicked the amulet hanging by his neck after they got down from the bus, and were making their way back home. She remembered the dirty looks from the passengers. But he remained oblivious, or rather he did not seem to care.

"Better than bringing that urn around, right?" she said. Sesshoumaru wanted to tell her the amulet was pointless when she was beside him, but kept it to himself. As they rounded a corner, Kagome put up a hand to stop them.

"One last stop beforehand," Kagome said. "This is important for you, Sesshoumaru. Anytime when I'm not home, and you gotta run for groceries, this is the place you go to," and she gestured to an unassuming settlement hulking before them beside a faulty streetlight, "the Family Mart!"

There was a young man squatting outside its premises, a cigarette burning between his fingers. The moment he saw Kagome approaching the doors, he quickly shot up and tossed his cigarette into a bin, and wiped his hands behind his jeans.

"Kagome-sama, welcome!"

"Heyyy!"

He greeted them with a short bow at the doors, and Sesshoumaru casted a glance at his nametag:  _Ichiro_.

Sesshoumaru stared until the young man ducked his head.

"This is where you get the eggs," Kagome pointed, as she guided him through a tour of the store, which as modest as it appeared, packed almost everything and anything she might need. "And this is the frozen section…"

"So I am expected to keep track of the food supplies at home now," Sesshoumaru stated, as she went on to teach him how to compare a good tomato, and a bad one.

"Oh don't give that face. Not  _totally_. I mean, I'm still in-charge of the overall expenditure, but in case we're short of sugar or flour, you won't need to wait for me anymore. I guess this also means you'll have better freedom in your cooking plans, and not just restricted to whatever's in the fridge."

"Hn. Understood."

Kagome placed her basket on the counter. She smiled at the young man from before. "It's just you today, Ichiro-kun?"

"Yeah, Asano called in sick last minute," Ichiro muttered, scanning her items. He stole a glance at Sesshoumaru beside Kagome. The weird-looking guy had been staring at him non-stop ever since he stepped into the store.  _He_  should be the one doing the staring—because what's up with that get-up, man? Nobody cosplays at this part of the neighbourhood.

"Ah hey," Kagome said, realizing the two had set eyes on each other, "by the way Ichiro-kun, this is Sesshoumaru, my, uh, friend. He's new here, so anytime you see him in the store, do say hello!"

"That boy in the store," Sesshoumaru later said, when they were home and he was helping her to sort out the groceries. The meat in the freezer, the salt and oil in the cabinets. "I do not like him."

"Gee Sesshoumaru, that's not a nice thing to say about someone you just met. I mean he does look a bit unique, but-"

"I do not care about being nice. It is a petty form of diplomacy born to conform to a social construct." He exhaled a deep breath. "I did not like you either when we first met."

Kagome snorted a laugh. "You mean when I exorcised the hell out of you."

"No. When you pulled out my father's fang from the ground."

She stared at him for a moment, the tomato denting in her hand.

"You know what, I think it's possible after all," she said. "That you're just purposely withholding information from our past."

"You slander me."

"Yeah, right."

"This Sesshoumaru requires to feed."

"There you go again, changing the subject."

A quiet growl rumbled from him, so soft it sounded like a purr from his chest. He frowned and tugged on her sleeve.

Kagome rolled her eyes. She sighed.

"I just don't know what to do with you sometimes," she said. "Go on, then. Wait for me by the altar."

As Kagome proceeded to take a knife and a bowl, the steel blade meeting blood, she wondered to herself just who was binded to whom.

**_To be continued!_ **

**_[A/N: If I don't stop myself, this would just go on and on…]_ **


	7. Dolphin in the Sky

Disclaimer: 'Summer of 69' lyrics written by Bryan Adams, James Douglas Vallance

 _Standing on your mama's porch  
_ _You said that it'd last forever  
_ _Oh, and when you held my hand  
_ _I knew it was now or never  
_ _Those were the best days of my life_  
- **Summer of '69** , Bryan Adams

**Dolphin in the Sky**

_"It's not the same," Kagome countered beside him._

_His dark eyebrows furrowed at the cloudy, summer sky._

_"What? What's not the same?"_

_"That cloud. You said it looks like a dolphin. Well, it doesn't."_

_He crossed his arms underneath his head, the tall grass prickling against his arms. He sneered._

_"Keh. You're speaking as if you've seen a dolphin in real life."_

_"Excuse me. I've seen plenty of those in the Tokyo Aqua Park. How about you-have you even seen an actual dolphin before?"_

_His nose scrunched in annoyance. The scent of her sweat lightly graced his nostrils, and for a moment Inuyasha was suddenly aware of just how close Kagome was, lying beside him on the grass._

_"I'm telling you, it looks like a goddamned dolphin."_

_Kagome rolled her eyes. The large slow-moving formation, cottony and wispy at the edges belied no characteristics whatsoever of said animal. There was no dorsal fin that the eyes could shape, or a snout maybe, or a tail. She didn't know which part of the cloud exactly screamed "dolphin" to Inuyasha. As usual, there was always something to disagree with him, even during a lazy, relaxing activity of lying in a meadow._

_"Idiot," she said._

_"Know-it-all."_

_A cicada hopped near his ear on the grass, chirping. He instantly sat up to swat it away. Kagome stared at him as he tossed his head to shake off the offending insect, a string of vehement curses trailing from his mouth._

_She could do it if she really wanted to. She could just reach out and touch his back. He was that close to her. She wondered in a year's time, as of now, would things remain the way they were now? A year from now, could she still manage to find time to lay beside him on the grass, arguing about dolphins, a cicada in his ear…_

_"Ne, Inuyasha."_

_"What?" he went, his voice exasperated._

_Kagome smiled to herself. She could see the dolphin he had been referring to, although subtle, its head springing out from the left edge._

_"Nothing."_

Kagome woke up with a start. Her eyes automatically darted to her alarm clock, and she shot out a curse.

Minutes later she was whizzing past the kitchen (where Sesshoumaru was carefully stirring a pot of soup) and ran straight to the house entrance where she squeezed frantically into her shoes. By the time Sesshoumaru peeked out from the kitchen, his head slipping through the noren curtain, Kagome had already disappeared.

"I wish I could be as enthusiastic as you," Kagome grumbled in the shrine hall as she wiped the windows with a rag, "doing spring-cleaning on a Monday morning."

Amari managed a sheepish smile as she wrung her rag over a bucket. Kagome-sama must have woken from the wrong side of the bed. "If the head priest wishes it, then it will be done so!"

"Do you know that man is impossible to please?" Kagome threw her rag on the floor and proceeded to sit down instead, hands folded tight. "Trust me, I've been working in this shrine for three years. There is always something to nit-pick."

"That's what you say, but the both of you are closer than any of his apprentices have been. Even Atsushi says he treats you differently. Oh, I really miss Atsushi. He left us so abruptly."

As Amari said this, the two shrine maidens could distinctly hear the loud barrage of rock music blaring from Jyohaku's office. Kagome glared. "Just  _hear_  that. He is nothing like the former head priest at all!"

"Eh?" Amari paused her vigorous wiping. "Didn't he pass on before Jyohaku-sama took over? How did you know him?"

Kagome gave a deep sigh, a contemplative look on her face.

"Well… It happened many years ago, but it was partly because of the old priest that I decided to come and serve in Yukino-jingu."

"See, that's what I mean, Kagome-sama. You're even acquainted with his late dad."

Suddenly Amari peered outside the window, towards the  _tori_  gate of the shrine. "Ah, looks like we have a guest!" She promptly dropped her rag into the bucket and the dirty soap water splashed, hitting Kagome's face.

Amari ran out to welcome the shrine visitor. However she returned mere minutes later, looking anxious.

"Kagome-sama," she murmured. "The visitor… He looks scary. I think he is one of those weird  _otaku_  guys. You know, the kind that likes to cosplay."

Kagome sprang up and grabbed her partner intently by the shoulders, her eyes holding a death-stare. "Amari-chan, does this guy happen to look like one of those elf creatures from Lord of the Rings?"

"Yes! But ah, he's wearing a Hello Kitty apron though…" Amari looked on in wonderment as the older woman dashed out from the hall as if it were a matter of life and death.

It was too late. She saw that the head priest outside had met the visitor first. It  _really_  was Sesshoumaru at the shrine entrance, in his usual robes and Hello Kitty apron. Her jaw dropped.

Kagome swore she could feel an electric charge buzzing in the air between the two equally intimidating figures, who were appraising each other in a face-off. Sesshoumaru and Jyohaku. Their names should never be in a same sentence. Bad news, bad news! The latter especially, was stock-still in surprise.

Kagome found herself cowering behind a pillar.

_Holy mother of… why? Why do I feel a storm approaching?_

Sesshoumaru removed his hard stare from the baffled priest. Something more important seemed to have stolen his attention. He strode towards the pillar where Kagome was hiding.

"Your lunch," he said simply, pushing a  _bento_  box into the withering  _miko_ 's hands. Then he turned and strode past the priest without another word, and out through the  _tori_  gate, his shoes clacking self-importantly against the stone.

Kagome stared incredulously at the warm  _bento_  box in her hand. He came all the way here just to...

Jyohaku's jaw tensed, as Amari ran forward to reach beside him. "Who on earth was that?" she called, as she watched the mysterious stranger descend the cobbled shrine steps.

A deep frown sullied the priest's face. That strange man had a peculiar pair of eyes, and it was somewhat familiar…

"Housemate?" Amari said later during the day, as she bit into a fishball. The two  _miko_  were having lunch at the garden benches. "You're telling me that all your recent amazing  _bento_  sets were prepared by him, Kagome-sama? But if he's a guy, and he's living with you, wouldn't that make him your boy-"

Kagome almost choked. "Where did you get that? He cooks and cleans after me in exchange for shelter, that's all!"

"So…he's a butler?" Amari suggested innocently.

Kagome scratched her head sheepishly. "Well I guess you could say that."

Amari sighed in relief, smiling. "You must be really lucky, Kagome-sama! You'll always have someone to talk to. I thought you were lonely living on your own, especially when your family is so faraway."

Immediately a scenario unravelled in Kagome's head, that of her and Sesshoumaru curled at the warm  _kotatsu_  table, peeling oranges as they laughed over outrageous gossip.

Nah-uh. Not in a million years.

"So he really isn't your boyfriend, huh?"

"I told you he's not!" Kagome crammed a deep-fried  _unagi_  into her mouth. By golly, the lunches just kept getting better. Trust Sesshoumaru to know she loved eel.

Amari poked her rice with her chopsticks, then she suddenly beamed with a suspicious brightness. "Well…in that case, let's go out on a date one day, shall we? I really, really wanna introduce you to my brother!"

"Amari-chan…"

Kagome changed into her pajamas after her hot bath. Once again an array of dishes was waiting for her on the table for dinner. She sat down and grabbed her chopsticks and was about to chow down her food, when she stopped.

"Ne, Sesshoumaru," she called out to him from the dining area. He was at the living room watching television as usual. "Would you like to join me for dinner?"

He responded very slowly. "This is a very informative documentary being aired right now. The internal structure of the Giza Pyramids-"

She rolled her eyes. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

Awhile later he appeared. He sat quietly at the low table, his back erect, his glazed golden eyes staring at nothing in particular as usual.

"The grilled  _saba_  fish tastes nice," Kagome commented, picking on its flesh with her chopsticks. "Thank you."

Sesshoumaru said nothing. Kagome swallowed her food slowly.

"Hey, Sesshoumaru. Have you… Have you seen a dolphin before?"

Her housemate turned to give her his most dumbfounded expression yet, his eyebrows raised so high it was almost comical. And she thought his face had been chiselled in ivory.

"A…dolphin?"

She nodded, giggling. "Yes. I'll bring you to the Tokyo Aqua Park to see the fishes one day. You'll enjoy that, won't you?"

Sesshoumaru blinked slowly, then looked away. He studied his lap for a long time, so long in fact that she thought he had shut himself up like he always did, and the conversation was over.

"I will go where ever you go," he said quietly at last.

**_To be continued..._ **

A/N: Why a dolphin? I don't know, it just kinda appeared in my head haha. Anyway do take note that Kagome does not actually remember her dreams containing her memories (with Inuyasha for example, at the start of the chapter). It stayed repressed in her subsconsious mind, until she was eating fish for dinner, and she sorta went, "Let's talk about dolphins."

Kinda sad, huh.


	8. Bliss in Ignorance

**Bliss in Ignorance**

"Hey, watch it! That box contains artefacts at least a thousand years old!"

"Careful now! Load everything slowly on the lorry!"

Kagome chuckled to herself as she watched the noisy scene before her. She was at her mother's house, doing a little visiting. Apparently the movers had arrived first when she came, shifting out the huge boxes from their shed.

Souta, now a tall, 18-year-old was running around with them, making sure they were moving the right boxes, and cautiously. Once in awhile he would go, "You guys are going the wrong way!" or "Not that one—that contains the garden tools!"

At last he joined his sister and mother at the side, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"You need to keep telling them they're carrying prized possessions," he sighed on his haunches, "or they'll just lug everything around like airport cargo."

"But aren't these movers the ones despatched by the National Archives Museum?" Mrs Higurashi wondered aloud.

"Gee, it's like you guys are moving from the house," Kagome laughed.

"Oh no, Kagome," her mother said. "You know we would never do that. The Higurashis have been staying at this ancestral house for more than 5 generations."

Souta looked over his shoulder, to the house that he had been staying at all his life. A morbid thought came to him. "Must be a lot of people that died in the house, then."

Suddenly his late grandpa surfaced from his memory. Gramps hadn't died in the house—he had died in the hospital surrounded by his loved ones. And in his will he had mentioned that the ancient treasures that he had devoted his life to caring, be donated to the National Archives Museum so people could learn about them. Maybe, deep inside the old man knew there was no one in the family he could depend on to delegate the task.

Souta sighed. He had been engrossed in his baseball games all these years, trying to score a place in the national team. Which he had succeeded, by the way. He had no right to feel disappointed that the family heirloom would now be showcased in glass boxes, where people would have to pay a ticket to see them.

As if sensing his thoughts, his sister placed a warm hand on his shoulder. "It's about time anyway, Souta," she said. Souta looked away. His sister was no longer as sentimental, her emotions more guarded now. Sometimes it was like she conveniently forgot about everything that happened.

Kagome walked towards the shed, taking care not to obstruct the busy movers. It had been a long time since she last stepped inside since she moved from her hometown. It was almost empty now, the shelves encased in a thick layer of dust, a mere shell of what it used to be: a vault of magical ancient treasures.

She swiped a cob-web near her head.  _If Gramps was still here he would have taken care of everything thoroughly. Speaking of ancient…_

Something pricked her mind. Slowly she sauntered out from the shed, then walked towards the shack which housed the old well.

As she expected, it was locked with a large, heavy padlock. A large  _fuda_  paper talisman was pasted on the doors, indecipherable kanji scribbled on it, wrinkled and faded with age. It was different than the usual ones Gramps used. After all it had been issued by the late head priest of Yukino-jingu, when he had come to bless the well ten years ago.

It almost felt like a forgotten dream, fuzzy at its edges. Kagome could vaguely remember that painful period, when the well had suddenly sealed itself in the middle of her epic adventure, during Naraku's final battle.  _Naraku_. Even that name sounded so unfamiliar to her now. But following that event, she had fell into a great depression for several years-she lost a lot of weight and got dropped out from college. Her grandfather was sure she had been cursed, and called the same priest to help her.

"She's not cursed," he had told her family. "She has a powerful spiritual energy inside her, but it's unable to flow. Something is blocking her channels."

Kagome smiled to herself as she touched the curled edge of the talisman.

"Once upon a time, I thought my feudal fairytale would have lasted forever."

"Sis, why are you talking to yourself?" Souta called from the back. "Is dinner at Ryoutaro's still on?"

Back in the train on the way home, Kagome drifted into sleep. She was rudely awakened by a vibrating buzz of her phone. Squinting, she read through the long chain of messages in the group chat.

"What, Eri is getting married already?" she whispered in disbelief. "Yuka's engaged, Ayumi's kid is a year-old now." She released a long sigh. "And then there's me."

She blinked to herself, staring at the train advertisements on the ceiling. Then she remembered something, and hastily dialled a number.

 _Speaking of incoming weddings, I wonder how's_ he _doing?_

"Moshi moshi," a young male voice answered.

"Hello, Atsushi. It's Kagome. Do you remember me?"

There was a pause. "Kagome-sama!" he then went in surprise. "Of course, I remember you. You were the only person who's managed to beat me in Go."

Kagome giggled at the memory. "Say, I haven't heard from you for so long. How are you and Saeko? You said your wedding would be in this year, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, it would be this summer at the Royal Ginza Hotel. Watch out for my invitation card!" Kagome laughed. "By the way, are you still working at the shrine, with Amari and Jyohaku?"

"Yes, yes I am."

He sighed. "You're a strong woman. There was no way I could continue to work there, not after  _that_  incident." He went silent for a while. "Kagome-sama. I still get nightmares…over that thing."

 _That thing…_  Her thoughts diverged.  _That thing is living in my house now._

He continued. "It's completely shattered the way I see the world now. It's just crazy." Kagome heard another woman's voice on the line, presumably his fiancé. "I'm sorry, I gotta go now. Thanks for calling though, Kagome-sama."

The dial tone signalled the end of the call. She pulled away her phone, disliking the sound it made.

Kagome walked slowly towards the dark pathway to her house. Maybe it was the lamplight doing tricks, or just plain fatigue. But she swore she saw a little figure playing at her door. It was gone in a second, and the first thought that went through her mind was,  _I really need a soak in the tub and a beer._

She entered the old storeroom as the bathtub filled itself. The altar at the corner glowed quietly.

"You know what's good right now?" she told herself, as she reached the antique phonograph by the window, then realized she had been talking a lot to herself that day. The phonograph belonged to the old  _miko_  who was the previous occupant, stacks of dusty vinyl records laid at its side. "Some music. Some music is good."

And then she slipped into her warm bath, sipping a can of Asahi Dry as the melodic voice of Doris Day filled her house.

_You won't admit you love me  
_ _And so how am I ever to know?  
_ _You always tell me  
_ _Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps_

Something splashed on her face, and her eyes flew open. Her body jerked. Her house was strangely quiet, and Sesshoumaru was kneeling by the tub.

"You lucky son of a—"

"You fell asleep," he said.

Kagome groaned inwardly. Her beer can was floating in the water. She found herself covering her chest from him, then stopped herself.  _Why? It's not like he sees me as a woman, anyway_.

"I mopped all the floors today," he announced in a mighty voice. "I cleared the trash."

"Mmm, good boy," she mumbled. She kneaded her temples—she could feel a migraine coming. Then she saw the way his hands were curled around the edge of the tub, and that look on his face, that round-eyed look—

She pretended not to understand. She filched the beer can out from the water, and aimed for the trash can beneath the sink. It dropped inside effortlessly, and she laid her head back.

Kagome shook her head. "Sesshoumaru, I'm tired of this. Really, I am. I'm tired of playing the waiting game. You gotta tell me something, anything. And you know exactly what I'm talking about here. Don't act coy with me."

"And what is it that you wish to hear?" he replied at last.

She exhaled slowly, frowning. She didn't know why it was suddenly so difficult to say it out.  _What is it? What is it that's really important—that I need to know?_

_Or am I just scared—that it no longer matters?_

"If it's my half-brother that is in your mind," Sesshoumaru spoke, "then I can only say that he was well,  _the last time I saw him_." He lightly fingered his chin. "In fact I remember that he had slightly put on weight."

Kagome stared at him in disbelief. "Idiot. If you can even remember such a small detail, you could have afford to remember everything else!"

"It was some time after you left. There was a fire that ravaged the village where he and his comrades lived in."

She sat up straight. "Fire? What fire?"

Her eyebrows slanted, quivering.  _No, this can't be true. This is…this is the truth, isn't it? The truth I've been waiting for…_

"But Inuyasha survived, didn't he? You said the last time you saw him, he was…"

"Kagome," Sesshoumaru said steadily, looking into her eyes. "That is your name, no?"

Kagome was confused at first. Then his face softened. Another time, his eyes were saying. Why the rush? You're not ready for this. She found herself giving him an agonized smile. Once again, a dead end in the conversation.

She sat quietly for a few minutes in the water. Then her knees quaked as she slowly stood up from the tub. Sesshoumaru's eyes followed her. A peculiar white foam coated on her body.

"I'm gonna take a light shower now to wash the bubbles off. Go."

He shook his head. "This Sesshoumaru wishes to watch further."

He found himself reaching for the door after she threatened him with a wet kick. "Insufferable woman," Sesshoumaru muttered, swinging the door open.

"I  _heard_  that, you stupid dog!"

**_To be continued…_ **

**[Credits: 'Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps' as written by Joe Davis, Osvaldo Farres**

**A/N: In which Sesshoumaru finally calls her name but Kagome is too mad too notice! A lot of foreshadowing in this chapter! Wooooo! And I need to get that exorcism chapter out like asap… *cries]**


	9. Ghost on the Bridge

**Ghost on the Bridge**

**[A/N: I would like to dedicate this chapter to all the readers who have been following this story religiously! Here it is finally! The fateful encounter!]**

_Approximately a year ago…_

"I'm not going to lose this time, Kagome-sama. You may have gained an upper hand before, but it was a lucky fluke if I ever see one, and a fluke it is and nothing more."

"Then move your piece, Atsushi. The way your fingers are trembling, I would be worried if I were you. Don't want to make that same mistake of  _accidentally_  pushing it into the wrong square again, do we?"

"I  _told_  you, the board was slippery."

If stares could blind, Kagome and Atsushi would be stabbing sharp daggers into each other's eyes, white-hot sparks flashing between their tensed, adamant faces. Just thenin the middle of that crucial, determining match of  _Go_ —where both parties had wagered their prides and of what flimsy skills they had—came a urgent series of footsteps stomping against the wooden floorboards of Yukino-Jingu, approaching their room.

"Atsushi! Higurashi! We have a  _harae_  appointment to catch!" a rough voice barked. The door slammed open, revealing Jyohaku's large figure, his face turning from resolute to eye-twitchingly livid in a matter of seconds.

"Why the hell are you both playing board games at a time like this?!"

"A  _what_  called?" Atsushi asked, as the three of them gathered into Jyohaku's car. The young training priest—who was but only on a part-time stint, and, if anyone asked, was trying to save up for a special something for a special someone—clicked on his seatbelt and swiped back his floppy fringe poking his eyes.

I should really have my bangs cut soon, he scolded himself, this thing is going to make me blind one day, I swear. Maybe he should get Saeko to do it, but Saeko herself had been so busy these few weeks over at her fancy-schmancy white Ginza office, while  _he_  was stuck down here wiping shrine floors and manning the souvenir store. As a modern, technology-embracing young Japanese guy, he didn't even believe in any of these spiritual shi—

"A construction company," Jyohaku said again as his Honda Vezel roared to life, snapping Atsushi's thoughts instantly. "Mr Kawabata is his name. He's the surveyor for his company. He's called for a  _harae_  to be performed at his construction site someplace in Kiba, where they're are going to build a holiday villa. Says there's been too many accidents, and work has been halted for too long."

"A-accidents?" Atsushi gulped.

"Falling trees. Missing machinery. Sixteen struck with an inexplicable illness in the hospital as we speak. That sort of thing."

Kagome turned to the paling Atsushi sitting in the front seat. "Atsushi, this is your first time assisting a purification ritual, isn't it? It's mostly a routine job for us."

"Why didn't you just make Amari go with you guys? I can help keep an eye on the shrine on her behalf."

Jyohaku rapped him with his folded, wooden fan and Atsushi howled. "Grow a pair, would you, boy! The shrine doesn't accept pansies! Really, you youngsters and your pampered, cosy lives. I bet you have never experienced a full-blown uppercut, or a paralysing body fold takedown, have you?"

"Why the hell should I?!"

At the back of the car where she sat alone, Kagome shifted restlessly. A foreboding rumble was spreading out inside her stomach, almost in sync with the low growling of the car's engine.

The construction site was in an untouched, forested area against the sprawling backdrop of the Midoriyama mountains, at least a kilometre away from the nearest settlement. A good spot for a scenic vacation. And also the habitat of animals and spirits alike. It was likely an unseen presence living in the area had felt threatened by the deforestation, and was punishing the construction workers who had dared interfered with its home.

Jyohaku spoke in grave tones with the surveyor, who was pointing to a damaged stone bridge over a stretch of river that ran deeper into the forest.  _If_  you could call it a bridge. The gloomy, weathered-beaten stone formation looked like it had become one with the forest; green with moss, lichens and whatnot, and choking with tangled vines.

The bridge was also emanating a strong aura of depression, and though someone had covered it with a dark blanket.

"Higurashi," Jyohaku called. Kagome trained her head close to listen beside him, as Atsushi eyed them suspiciously from where he stood. "It all started when they started to demolish the bridge. This is even serious than I thought." He paused. "Two people have actually died in the hospital."

Kagome tensed, lines appearing on her forehead as she stared at the bridge ahead. "There's an unclean presence corroding on the bridge," she informed. "I can… I can sense an overwhelming glut of emotions all around—anger, sorrow,  _guilt_ —so much so that I can't name some of them. It's pretty much anchored itself to this place."

Jyohaku nodded. Kagome's clairvoyant abilities were not mystifying—in fact it was one of the many things his old man had divulged to him many years ago, subsequent to meeting her for the first time. His wrinkly hand that held a sake cup had quivered in excitement as he related to Jyohaku how a family had arrived into their shrine with their troubled daughter. Her eyes had bore a startling wealth of  _reiki_ , a raging fire that was as bright as it was subdued.

But at that time Kagome was but a mere high-schooler, while Jyohaku's only interest in life was winning that night's wrestling match.

Kagome and Atsushi stood in attentive deference as Jyohaku initiated the ceremony. There were standing under a makeshift shelter erected by the workers, where an altar of offerings had been set up beforehand for the priest to bless.

He bowed low to the offerings, folded fan clutched in his hand. A low, intense liturgy murmured from his lips, as ancient words reverberated throughout the quiet shelter. It gave Atsushi the strangest chills, like something born from his deepest fears.

Slowly Atsushi and Kagome trailed the priest from behind as he neared the bridge. He circled its perimeter, chanting as he shook a  _harai-gushi_ , or purification wand, vehemently in the act of hitting.

Kagome bit her lower lip. It was slightly bruised. Which meant she had been biting it more than she wanted to admit. The heavy sensation in her chest had hardened into something almost tangible, like a small stone of anxiety. With each step forward, the wind started to moan louder, ominous and foreboding, and she saw Atsushi quaking beside her, his teeth chattering.

She had never felt so nervous performing a  _harae_  before. Something was different this time. Something that was capable of inflicting hurt, of inflicting  _death._

 _When was the last time I felt something like this?_  Hadn't that been ten years or so, fighting demons in that parallel world inside the old well? But that had been so long ago, its truth refuted even by her closed ones—and it scared her now how eerily similar her body was reacting to the current circumstances, the disturbingly familiar rush of cold blood, the tingling chill in her spine.

Suddenly a sharp gust whipped through them, the wind evolved into a whistling gale. The workers cried out as the makeshift shelter swayed and collapsed together with the altar of offerings. A bulldozer nearby turned over in the wind, crashing loudly in an explosion of sound.

"The heck—" Atsushi shouted. It started the moment the priest began sprinkling salt at the bridge. He heard the loud cracking of branches around him, the air howling a strange song. The little hairs at the back of his neck prickled up. It wasn't a coincidence. Bulldozers don't crash from the wind in a place where people have mysteriously gotten sick and died, out of coincidence. Something was orchestrating these events, something he struggled to make sense from his logical understanding of the world.

And then he saw it, the  _thing_ , right before his eyes and everything just shattered.

An apparition swirled before him, a dark haze in the figure of a man, except it did not look human—a pair of burning embers for eyes, pointed fangs of a beast, snow-white hair. It roared deeply a growl of a thousand lions, the unworldly sound twisting into the howl of the wind as it echoed within Atsushi's own body, permeating through each pore and opening, until all he felt was the inevitable darkness, and the throat-gripping fear as his senses left him.

"Atsushi!" Kagome and Jyohaku called at the same time, as the young man buckled and crumpled to his knees.

"Do not touch him!" Jyohaku shouted.

Atsushi moved his head, but his neck was strangely limp.

" _You humans will regret and pay for this destruction you have caused,"_ he snarled in a strange, deep voice. A threatening growl whirred from him.

Kagome stayed rooted to her spot, her mouth agape in sheer disbelief. She could see its true form—the evil presence that had been terrorizing the construction plot, and harm anyone who dared to demolish its bridge. It hovered like an opaque, ghostly double-image over the crouching Atsushi, with a malevolent aura that tethered strongly against her own.

She staggered a step backwards. It was  _him_ , that mysterious, formidable figure from her obscure days as a time-travelling  _miko_. Her eyes travelled frantically she tried to process the vague details on his face. Crescent moon, cold eyes of gold, thin cruel lips. She could instantly recognize him in a crowd. In turn came a train of blurred images of their allied encounters in a fantastical, dream-like battle-a dizzy vortex of spilled blood and clashing swords, all centred amidst a lone, shimmering pearl.

 _It's impossible._ Her mind held back. _Did he die and somehow became a vengeful spirit?_

Kagome instinctively grabbed a holy arrow from her back, except there was no arrow, and she faltered in the realization of the present. Her lips trembled as she dared to utter his name.

"Sesshoumaru."

Atsushi's head shot up, an indiscernible expression on his face, somewhere between confusion and pain.

"You probably don't remember who I am," Kagome whispered, "but you need to stop this. Please, stop hurting the workers because it's not their fault."

 _"Destroy the bridge,"_  Sesshoumaru and Atsushi growled in one voice. " _And I will destroy you."_

Jyohaku deftly stirred into action. He whipped out a talisman, chanted a quick mantra and shot it towards Atsushi's face. Atsushi evaded with lightning speed, then burst into a roar as he pounced on him on all fours. He wiped the priest cold on the ground in an instant. Then he turned to the lone  _miko_ behind, his eyes shining a beastly yellow.

Kagome grabbed the  _harai-gushi_  that had fell from Jyohaku's hand, and took a handful of salt from his pocket. She cast a glance towards his body, her lips pursed in regret.

"You obviously don't respond to kind words," she spoke coldly, her temerity rising in her chest. "Listen, now! I'm giving you a choice. Evacuate the young man's body, or I will be forced to exorcise and vanquish your spirit!"

The demon supplied with another defiant roar, and a hasty, almost clumsy attempt to paw at her body. Kagome leapt a step backwards, her hand gripping the wand even tighter. A drop of sweat trickled past her temple. She wiped it off with a brush of her arm, gasping. Fighting with demons was no longer in her stride.

She pointed the  _harai-gushi_  towards his head.

"I see you're still stubborn as ever, Sesshoumaru. You've spoiled your chances now, and I won't allow you to occupy my friend a second longer!"

She dashed towards him with an anguished cry. The salt threw over his inhuman eyes.

_I'm sorry, Atsushi, but this is going to hurt badly for you. Please forgive me!_

Jyohaku jerked back in consciousness. He saw that he was still in the forest clearing, although his surroundings had grown darker. He groaned as he moved. He lifted his head, then watched in paralyzed horror.

His apprentice. She was burning, her lithe body aflame with a dazzling soft light, hued with warm pink. Her long hair waved afloat, her small face beholding a gentle calmness. He had never seen such a smile, the one shaped on her lips to convey a kind of compassion, a merciful kindness. No, not burning. She was  _radiating_. He could not even move to shield his eyes from the bright vision.

Was this…the all-consuming glow of  _reiki_  that had awed and intrigued his old man that day? The power of a true  _miko_ , like that from an old era that had ceased to exist. He was witnessing it now, basking in her light. Higurashi Kagome. A wilful, and occasionally bad-tempered shrine maiden. The young lady in his father's tales. She had finally revealed herself to him.

Her body spun, and then she landed with a heavy whip of his  _harai-gushi_  on Atsushi's body, the fraying paper streamers hitting with a resounding  _twack_. Atsushi yelled in his own voice as his body doubled over in pain. She whipped him again with unrelenting speed fueled by a frightening power. The boy had crouched himself into a foetal position on the ground, his ear-piercing screams rewarding her every lash.

Jyohaku snapped from his reverie. The smile on her lips had disappeared, as did Bodhisattva's benevolence that was seemingly bestowed upon her mere moments ago. How long exactly had she been exorcising the boy?

"You will heed my words!" Her voice, turned cold, commanded. A spark of lightning crackled at the end of the wand, ripping through cloth. An unfamiliar glimmer washed in her eyes. "You  _will_  release him and leave this place!"

"Higurashi!" Jyohaku shouted. His legs finally kicked, and he ran to his apprentice, pulling her away. "Stop! You are going to kill Atsushi!"

She resisted against him with uncanny strength. "Jyohaku-sama!" Kagome suddenly lashed him a glare. "Get me a vessel, and fill it with the soil under the bridge! Now!"

The priest regarded her with confusion at first, then left on hurried steps. Kagome bent down and shook the semi-conscious Atsushi's shoulders, knowing the creature inside him could hear her clearly.

"Listen, Sesshoumaru! I'm going to exorcise and obliterate the devil out of you if you continue this!"

 _"Enough…"_  Sesshoumaru's voice rasped from his lips. Kagome saw a dark instant of his face, felt the undulating waves of his fragile aura trying to reach towards hers, like the tendrils of a creeping plant. He was weak, and wholly defeated from the exorcism. After all he was naught but a mere spirit now, and not the  _daiyoukai_  that once intrigued her young self. The Sesshoumaru that withstood in her memories was not like this; he was omnipotent and obstinate, and he would not succumb to a mere  _miko_.

Why? Why did they have to meet again under such circumstances?

Her cheeks were suddenly wet, and she wiped her tears off.

"Sesshoumaru, tell me, what holds you to that bridge?"

_"If you wish to vanquish this spirit, then now is an opportune moment."_

"Do you want to be free?" she softly asked him. She saw in the ambiguous haze, as his eyes slowly swept to her face, like faint beacons. "I can release you from your torment that attaches you to this place. I can purify the darkness that festers in your soul. You'll be a brand-new person. But in return… In return, you must follow me."

An uncertain frown pinched between his brows, but he was almost fading now into the orange pools of the setting sun. He did not own much strength to begin with. She had obliterated almost all of it with her power.

_"You wish…for this Sesshoumaru's spirit to be bound to you?"_

She smiled at him. "Don't use such a solemn word. Think of it like… Like I'm tying a small red string around your finger, and mine."

_"Then… Binded?"_

She pouted her mouth. "Something like that." And then she leaned forward to him, whispering as if imparting a small secret. "I can give you a new body too if you want. Not like this guy. This guy is a scaredy-cat. How about that?"

A slow breath seeped from him.  _"I have died before. A second death is nothing to me."_

Kagome stared at the bridge ahead, darkening into a shapeless mass in the evening. She remembered the tumult of emotions she had felt when she first stepped there. Emotions that harboured within Sesshoumaru himself.

_What exactly did you go through, Sesshoumaru, to transpire like this?_

"Quick! You don't have much time left! Answer me!"

Sesshoumaru closed his eyes. Nothing. He had nothing to lose. Not even his honour and pride that he had upheld for so long, and in the end only served to betray himself. To live through the centuries as a ghost. Time and purpose had become a hollow concept. As hollow as the gaping hole on his body that had promised upon his demise. Of course, the reason why he had adhered to this place was another matter, but that too, was a never-ending curse he had bequeathed.

Even in death there was something to constantly seek, never content, never satisfied, always searching. Always waiting.

Was it possible to say, that he was weary after all, after everything?

He could feel the warmth of her aura enveloping him, pulling him away from the bleak confines of his being. It did not seem like a bad place. Perhaps she was Death after all. The real Death, and not the one who had viciously ripped his soul out from his throat.

_"Do with me what you will."_

Kagome smiled, as she cradled Atsushi's body into her arms. "Everything will be alright," she then whispered into his ear.

The priest appeared behind her. In his hand was an urn he had collected from the collapsed rubble.

She took the urn, and his lips pursed into a grim line.

"I do not understand why you're doing this. But Higurashi, that thing. That thing is dangerous."

Kagome almost laughed. She looked up and sent him a mischievous grin, her demeanour worlds apart from the furious, nearly  _senseless_  priestess who almost killed her friend just moments ago.

"That's what you say, but you still followed my directions."

"That's because—"

She put up a hand. "Oh shush. Whatever happens will fully be under my responsibility now. You just gotta turn back and don't look at what I'm about to do. Then you can't say that you witnessed your apprentice commit an act of heresy, can you?" Seeing his incredulous face, Kagome started to laugh.

"Oh Jyohaku-sama. If you think he's dangerous now, you should have seen him five hundred years ago."

Jyohaku glared at her, and turned back. Inari Ōkami was probably going to curse him a thousand-fold for allowing this to happen. He shook his head with disappointment not just for her, but for himself. The priest route was really not cut out for him.

The priest did not see, but Sesshoumaru did. In his own quiet, withering state, his spirit watched as Kagome straightened herself on the grass, seated in an upright meditative pose. Her hands clasped together in a prayer as her lips moved in a chant, her figure slowly bathing in the dying glow of the sun.

To whom was she beseeching to, and what exactly, he did not know. He only knew the warmth of her aura, further infusing into him. He sealed her face into his memory. Seal her face, like he had sealed Rin's.

When he opened his eyes an eternity later, he was staring at a white ceiling, naked, and the room smelled like a pig-sty.

_Approximately a year later…_

_"Sesshoumaruuuuuuuu!_ Get in here, right  _nowwwwww_!

She was screaming. Again. Sesshoumaru shook his head slowly to the sides as though a pool of water had collected in his ears, and he was trying to drain them out. It was such an ugly sound. Especially when one was absorbed in an especially riveting episode of Living with the Kardashians, Episode 3, Season 11.

"What the hell is that?!" Kagome sputtered, pointing to the mangled heap of metal at the backyard where he finally joined her. Then she sent him a flabbergasted look. "Why…why are you eating my Calbee prawn crackers? Are you that hungry?" She slapped her cheek. "No! My bicycle! What did you do to my bicycle?!"

He munched through said crackers. "I attempted to mount it. However it proved to be unco-operative. So I disposed of it."

"That's not for you to decide!" she further screamed. "How am I supposed to go to work tomorrow?!" Kagome flailed her arms around, seemingly entering a state of emotional meltdown. Sesshoumaru blinked with indifference and returned to the couch.

She clasped her hands to her head and sunk slowly to her knees.

_I shouldn't have brought him here._

She stared at her warped bicycle, twisted so badly beyond recognition that no amount of repair could salvage it. Funny, but she could somewhat remember this wasn't the first time it happened. A bad case of déjà vu overcame her.

_This is all…a horrendous mistake!_

To be continued…

**[A/N: I honestly can't believe I finally got this chapter out! It was longer than I expected. This was supposed to be the 2nd chapter! Wahahahahah! Anyways you must have realized the dark flavour for this latest offering—I had very much intended it to be that sombre. Everyone's inner monologues was just running around and we're having insights to everyone's pasts and motivations. I also made some references to previous chapters; I'm guessing it reads differently now.**

**I also left some ambiguous hints on Sesshoumaru's past, hehe. A little bit goes a long way. Anyhoo because I'm so glad this chapter is done, I'm being generous by rewarding y'all with another update! Two chapters in one go! Hoohoo! Reviews always make my day, and feel free to ask me anything. ;)**

**Lucy out.**


	10. Assimilation of the Human Culture

A/N: Heyyyy. Welcome to the second arc! Yessss this is turning into a slow-burn romance that is killing even the author… Here Kagome realizes everyone around her is slowly, but surely, changing. Things are happening too fast, esp Sesshoumaru's evolution! XD

**Assimilation of the Human Culture**

Kagome placed her items at the cashier. A bag of rice, a carton of milk, a bottle of mirin sauce, and a packet of  _edamame_  beans. The essentials. She fingered a box of Pocky at a nearby rack. She hemmed and hawed for a while, then went ahead with two boxes. She wasn't living by herself anymore, after all.

She smiled at the young man ringing up the items at the register. "You're alone, Ichiro-kun. Let me guess, Asano's on leave again?"

Ichiro smirked. "You've been coming here now long enough to know Asano's patterns. I bet you don't even remember what the guy looks like, do ya?"

Kagome laughed, until she caught a glint of his shiny nametag. Her hand covered her open mouth. "Oh my god, you've been promoted."

Immediately Ichiro stuck his arms to his sides and stood ram-rod straight, chin up. "Manager Kirihata Ichiro at your service, madam!" he said proudly, earning a giggle from Kagome. Then his posture relaxed. "I worked really hard just so I could say that, y'know."

"You're a meticulous and hard worker, Ichiro-kun. You deserve it! Congratulations!" Kagome then scratched her chin as he continued to pack her groceries. "Say, how long have you been working here, anyway?"

Ichiro hummed as he wondered aloud, licking the set of pierced rings on the bottom left of his lip. It was a habit he had whenever he was thinking, Kagome had noticed. Ichiro was probably the kind of guy mothers would warn their daughters to stay away from. Not Kagome. She had never been one to judge books by their unreliable covers. Besides she couldn't help it—aside from the fact that Ichiro looked like a poster child for "visual kei" (bleached cornrows, lip and brow piercings, plucked eyebrows), he was actually a pretty down-to-earth guy.

"Hmm. Around three years ago, give or take. Shortly before you moved into the neighbourhood, Kagome-sama."

He glanced up to her. Three years ago. Wow, that was long as hell. It felt only like yesterday when the store-door bell had chimed that incessant tune— _ting a ling a ling!—_ and a young lady had stepped inside whilst he was arranging the egg cartons. It was the first time anyone dressed in traditional  _miko_  garb had entered the store. He remembered it was a summer's day, because her red  _hakama_  was billowing from the summer breeze. Needless to say an egg carton slipped and fell to the floor, and she had cried, running to help. Suddenly, like a dream, their fingers were mingling together in the runny yolk on the floor of the Family Mart store. With a painful twist in his chest, he realized it wasn't just the eggs that had fell.

How ironic, of all people. He probably looked like the devil beside her.

"Kagome-sama," he said, trying to adopt a casual tone, taking his own sweet time to place her peas in the plastic bag, "The guy that sometimes comes with you when you do your shopping here. Is he your boyfriend?"

Her lips pursed into a tight line, and he immediately regretted his words.  _Ichiro, you're an idiot, aren't you_ , she was probably thinking—"I-I'm sorry if I made you mad with my question. I'm not trying to pry or anything, really—"

Kagome shook her head kindly. "It's alright, I'm not mad. You're not the first person to ask, you know. The old aunties in the residents' committee especially are always fishing information about him. It's a small town, after all. In fact I'm perplexed that you hadn't asked sooner."

Kagome clapped her hands together and sucked in her breath. "Alright, so here's the scoop!

"No.1 he's not a foreigner, or a mixed-blood.

"No.2 He's not that scary—you  _can_  talk to him. I promise you he won't bite.

"No.3 Those long glossy tresses are the real deal! Please refrain yourself from patting!"

Ichiro frowned. That was a smorgasbord of information to take in. Does she tell that to everyone who enquires about him? "So what does he do, cosplay for a living? Like, Sailor Moon?"

She smiled, shrugging. "That's what everyone wants to believe."

He accepted her cash and handed the change thoughtfully. "So…is he's your boyfriend?"

Kagome lifted her bags away, giggling as she shook her head. "Well I guess you can say he is a  _friend_ ," she said. "Although I have no idea what the guy is thinking sometimes. He never shares anything with me, you know. Even though we've been living together for a year now…"

Ichiro slammed the counter. "Wait, you're living together?!"

_I used to be mad whenever I pass by the park._

Kagome smiled to herself as she took small, but purposeful strides into the park. It was part of the journey home from the Family Mart, around two minutes of walking from her house.

_Especially in the evening, when it's filled with blissful lovers._

As usual the park was slightly crowded, with people passing through after work. It was a popular place for couples as well, the strategically-placed benches offering a suggestion of privacy among the tall pawlonia trees.

The bags in her hands were starting to get heavy, but she could take it. She was going to reach home soon anyway.

 _It doesn't bother me much now, though. Maybe, it's because I don't feel as lonely anymore_.

" _Gaikoku no miko_ ," called a voice from behind.

Kagome turned her head and saw him at the corner of her eye. He was wearing a Christmas knitted sweater they got from a flea market. She squinted her eyes.

Fancy meeting  _him_  here.

"Hey," she said. "It's been a long while, you  _need_  to stop calling me tha—"

She stumbled when she caught his full figure, and tripped over her own foot. He caught her back right away before she could fall on the pathway. A few passer-bys in the park delivered them strange glances.

"Sesshoumaru!" she exclaimed, her eyes round with shock as they darted across his face. "What happened to your  _hair_?"

Gosh. It wasn't the fact that they had bumped into the park after her work—she was now, after all, tame with the idea of him gallivanting out from the house on his own (provided he dressed decently and  _run_  should he encounter suspicious men in dark-blue)—but the simple, lone fact that he had done something to himself.

His long shimmering tresses of silk. They felt soft and fine, precious to the touch. She knew this because she would secretly allow them to slip through her fingers each time he fell into an occasional deep sleep. They were gone now. Reduced to a shorter version, which, as she further scrutinized, realized it reflected a modern layered haircut. Immediately she was placed in an instant state of denial over his new image. His hair still touched his shoulders, but...

"I just returned from the hairdresser's," Sesshoumaru proclaimed, as he continued to walk alongside her. As though going to the hair salon was something to be proud of.

"But...why?"

"Is there a concern?"

"I thought you might have some sort of attachment to it, at least. You had it with you your whole life, didn't you?"

"Yes. But It has no longer served me a purpose. Besides, the hairdresser said it is the current trend. And this Sesshoumaru needs to be well-informed."

 _The hairdresser just wants your money_ , she wanted to tell him glumly.

Then she pondered over his words. She had no idea what original purpose his long hair may initially had. But to just chop them off like that… Kagome would kill anyone who dared alter her hairstyle. Turns out Sesshoumaru was heartless even to himself.

Sesshoumaru then gestured his hand towards her supermarket bags, and she imparted half of them to him. His fingers brushed against hers as she did so. She momentarily stilled, waiting for him to jump, but he did not notice.

They continued to walk through the park in silence.

"Those RC aunties are going to have a field day talking about your new look," Kagome muttered despondently. "Are you trying to pick on girls now?"

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes and lifted his chin. "To know your enemy, be your enemy," he stated. Kagome quirked an eyebrow. "Sun Tzu."

"…Enemy?"

"Once I have fully assimilated myself within the human culture, this Sesshoumaru will embark on his conquest for world domination."

"Sheesh, I remember distinctly someone said he would never blend himself among humans."

"I remember no such thing."

"Yes, you forget when it's convenient, don't you? Anyway, it's just a haircut. You still have a long way."

Kagome then stole a peek.  _Well not just a haircut, actually. I admit he really looks different now._ Sesshoumaru's jawline seemed more pronounced, lending his face a more masculine effect. The androgynous quality of his features still retained however. He was still undeniably beautiful to her.

Maybe even more.

She frowned to herself, hashing her own thoughts. She bit her lip, considering him again.

Was it disturbing to admit he looked a wee attractive now? His looks had always been admirable, but it had never spoken to her on a deeper level. Now, now she was viewing him from a different lens. In which he was reflected no more of the  _daiyoukai_  from her past, but instead a new man in her present.

Or...just maybe it was just the angle from where she was standing. That had to be it.

"There is world domination," Sesshoumaru spoke, "and then there is that."

"Sorry?"

"I believe this is the first time you are walking by my side with your head held high."

Kagome stopped, growing hot over what he was implying.

"Take that back! I was never embarrassed to walk with you! Okay maybe when we pass the RC block…"

She blew out her breath as she continued her pace. The women walking by were dishing out second, even third glances to Sesshoumaru. It wasn't the usual frightened-out-of-their-skin look either.

"Look at all the girls ogling at you now. They must think you're some kind of model."

"A model."

"Yeah," Kagome said, grinning over the unlikeliness. "You probably make a good one."

She then sighed as she watched the darkening, dusky-blue sky, the birds cawing their way home. "Hmm... I know this sounds pretty sudden. But I'm kinda craving for a butterscotch sundae right now. With caramel bits and a big pretzel on top."

He nodded agreeably. "I know what your strange cravings signify. That time of the month is coming."

She hit his back with a plastic bag when she understood his meaning. "You pervert!"

Sesshoumaru remained passive as he looked up above, then held up his palm. A wet drop pelted his cheek softly. "It's drizzling," he said. "Let us hurry home."

 _It's distressing, really,_ Kagome wrote in her diary after they had reached home and she had taken a shower. The melancholic scent and sounds of the passing rain gently filtered into her room.

_Over the past year he has learnt so many things about me. My turbulent mood swings, my occasional pet peeves. (Like the sound of a fingernail scratching against the tatami mat. He still does this occasionally to annoy me.)_

_How I like my steak done, how I like the windows slightly ajar when it's drizzling. Even my monthly cycle, which he has shamelessly mentioned._

_And yet... And yet if you were to ask me one thing about him that I've learnt, aside that he does the chores perfectly and watches too much TV, is that…there is nothing._

_I know nothing about this person whom I've invited into my home, and ultimately into my life._

Sesshoumaru walked to the living room. He saw that Kagome was already huddled at the couch, hugging a cushion pillow whilst eating from a box of Pocky.

"Hey, they're showing my all-time favorite movie," she was saying, without moving her eyes from the screen. He sank into the couch beside her.

"And that is?"

"Shrek!" Kagome exclaimed. "The first one. The others are okay, but the first one will always be the best for me."

_I don't know what his motives are, or what are his plans for the future. Although I do hope his world conquest talks are but only a joke._

She saw the way his eyes were studying her Pocky with quiet interest. She waved the box at him. "You want some?" He nodded, and she allowed him to take a stick. "So are you completely assimilated with our food culture yet, Sesshoumaru?"

The biscuit stick crunched between his sharp teeth. "This Sesshoumaru is making significant progress."

Kagome smiled. "Okay, next time I'll try to be the one to whip something up for you. Maybe something exotic. Like Middle Eastern food. Like  _shawarma_."

" _Shamarwa_ ," he slowly followed after her.

"No, look at my tongue.  _Sha-war-ma."_

" _Shamarwa."_

"Oh god, you're doing that on purpose, aren't you?"

_But somehow, I feel reassured when he's next to me._

_"What kind of knight_ are _you?" Princess Fiona exclaims in an exasperated manner. Of which Shrek turns from the door to answer in a confident swagger,"One of a kind."_

Kagome laughed, her hair tumbling down her heaving shoulders, even though she had probably watched the scene a million times. And then barely half an hour later, her head had lolled back on the couch, and she was all but fast asleep. Sesshoumaru took the remaining rest of her Pocky to eat until the movie ended.

Then he took her carefully in his arms, and carried her to bed.

_Reassured, and warm. And I haven't felt like that in a long time._

_To be continued…_

**A/N: Nope, still friends. XD And watch out for more Ichiro! I always enjoy writing about my original characters.**


	11. Happily Ever After

**Happily Ever After**

"Morning, Amari-chan!" Kagome greeted as she arrived at the Yukino Shrine. "Today I brought extra food for lunch! There's fried  _aburaage_  and  _onigiri_  to pass around!"

Amari giggled. "You're so cheery today." Her smile promptly disappeared when she saw the head priest arriving shortly after at the  _tori_  gate. She quickly busied herself with raking the dead leaves.

Jyohaku stopped near the steps towards the entrance hall. He placed his shrine sandals onto the floor, beside the pair of Nike running shoes he was wearing.

Kagome gave him a long once-over, not bothering to conceal the almost leery smile on her face. The head priest was decked out in a windbreaker and track pants, both in crisp black.

"Morning ladies," he said.

"Morning! Did you take a jog before coming? It's the second time this week." Kagome's eyes lit up. "Ah! Could it be—you're making a return to the ring?! All hail the return of Onizuka the Terrible!"

"Yes, and who's going to watch over the shrine while I do that? A pair of ditzy girls?"

"Hey, you just called us "ladies" a second ago."

Jyohaku rolled his eyes and stuck his hands in his pockets. "My days of glory are over. Onizuka the Terrible has since died." He sighed. "I miss the active lifestyle. That's all."

Kagome pulled Amari by her shoulders. "Ne Amari-chan, don't you think the priest looks especially  _dashing_  in sports attire?"

Amari stared at him, then quivered and shied away.

"I-I don't know."

Jyohaku cocked an eyebrow. "Kirihata, you really need to do something about your flushed skin. It's red everytime I see your face. It's worrying."

"It's—it's red  _only_  when you see it," Amari mumbled.

"Wait. Are you possibly…"

He bent forward to squint at the young woman's face. She squealed, and hid herself behind Kagome, grabbing onto her friend's shoulders.

"…allergic to me?" Jyohaku finished.

Amari bolted into the shrine. "I'm sorry, but I think I'll go sort out the books in the archives now!"

Kagome giggled as she watched her friend's antics. "She's adorable, isn't she? Like a soft, fluffy bunny."

"More like a red-faced monkey." Then he turned to Kagome and raised his eyebrows. "Well, what is it?"

Kagome backed from his suspicious look. "What?"

"You've been in a good mood recently. Also, you've gained back a healthier pallor. I remembered you were somewhat pale all these while."

 _Um, that's because Sesshoumaru isn't feeding much like he used to,_  Kagome thought.

"Tell me the truth," Jyohaku spoke, with an aura of dead seriousness. "Did you win the lottery?"

"Jyohaku-sama!"

The priest smoothed the unruly sides of his thick hair and smiled good-naturedly. "You know that good things must be shared. Now be a good apprentice and seek out some lottery numbers from that spirit you're siring, on my behalf."

Kagome sighed aloud. "I swear, you're horrible." And then an equally horrible idea came to her. She clapped her hands gleefully. "Hey. You know Amari-chan invited me to a date next weekend. She's dying to introduce me to her brother. If you come along, it would be a double—"

"No can do. That's something only you youngsters organize," Jyohaku went.

"Oh, stop acting like you're an old man! You're only ten years my senior! No wonder you're still single and living with your Siamese cat!"

"Excuse me! Women used to throw their panties into the ring every time Onizuka the Terrible was performing!"

"That's because they didn't know your crappy personality!" Kagome huffed and turned away. "Fine. No lottery numbers for you."

Jyohaku harrumped and folded his hands tightly. "Stupid apprentice. You're always full of funny ideas, aren't you?"

"That's because I've got an equally stupid priest to serve."

* * *

Kagome stepped out from her bathroom, towelling her hair dry. Her house was flooded with lights and the TV was blaring with another re-telecast of Oshin, but it only took her  _now_  to realize.

He was nowhere to be seen. Not since she returned.

"Sesshoumaru?" Kagome whirled. She checked all the rooms, went to the backyard. She was the only person in her house.

She pulled her hair towel off her slowly. Her damp hair unravelled and fell limply against her back, like dead snakes.

It wasn't like it was the first time he was out on his own. She shouldn't feel so worried for him. Right? Although she wished there was a way he could inform her beforehand. Then at least she could tell him nicely to  _please_  switch off the television and lights before leaving the house.

Maybe she should write a big passive-aggressive note on the fridge. The same fridge he liked to raid in the dead of the night, now that he had acquired a taste for human food. It seemed like the more he embraced the human way of living, the more he became increasingly unbearable.

Sometimes, just  _sometimes_  she missed the Sesshoumaru that would stare at her vacantly during the initial few months. Who would implore silently for his meal with his round eyes. At least he wouldn't consciously go out of his way to annoy her.

Nowadays he almost didn't need to be fed. It had been some weeks since he called for her, that was for sure. Kagome rubbed the edge of her scarred finger.

And the best part? He was still leaving her hanging, what with his cryptic half-answers and unhelpful insights to their past. To everything.

Come on, it had been a year. She was this close to giving up.

She switched off the TV. Her foot kicked something on the floor. It rolled with a shrill sound under the couch, a small, cylinder-shaped object. Kagome bent over, groaning as she tried her darnest to reach it. When she pulled it out, it was coated with an ugly layer of dust.

It was the amulet she had given to Sesshoumaru to wear on his neck. Kagome gasped. It rolled further in her palm. The soil from the urn was still inside.

* * *

_"Oh God! It's so heavy! It probably…weighs like a ton!"_

_The taijiya laughed. "Oh stop overreacting. Kagome-chan. My Hiraikotsu probably weighs as much as your heavy backpack."_

Kagome stirred from sleep. She blinked at her dark ceiling. Her mind was strangely lucid, but her alarm clock glowed a green 3:15. She knew she had dreamt of something, but could not for her life, remember.

There were voices outside. Yes, that was the thing that had woken her up. She opened her bedroom door and strode out, feeling for the amulet in her pyjamas' pocket as she did so.

"Who are you talking to?" she asked him. She saw Sesshoumaru's figure leaning against the kitchen counter, a glass of juice in his hand.

_That's my expensive Hokkaido grape juice!_

"No one," he said.

"I heard two voices."

"Do you see anyone else?"

Kagome took a deep breath. "No." Then she hastily revealed the amulet. It swung from its cord like a pendulum. "This. I want to talk to you about this. How do you go around without it? I thought you needed it."

"Not anymore." He saw the confused look on her face, and continued to sip his juice.

_He's doing that again. Ugh!_

"Okay," she said, grinding her jaw. "Anyways, would you mind switching off the electrical appliances when there's nobody at home? You're gonna rack up a huge bill. Maybe…maybe you should start thinking about getting a job, huh? Help me with expenses. Reimburse for that bike you wrecked."

Sesshoumaru set his glass aside and folded his arms neatly. "No. I wish to assume the role and responsibilities of a house husband."

 _A what!_  All the colour drained from her face. "You—when did you learn that  _word_? That's the most ludicrous thing you've ever said."

"Does it shock you? It shocks me as well that you require me to go out and work."

"That's because you're starting to live here like any other person, and that incurs cost. It wasn't so bad last time, but now I'm starting to feel the pinch..."

 _Wait. I get it_ , Kagome thought.  _Sesshoumaru's never worked a day in his life. He used to be a Lord, remember. He probably thinks I'm insulting him._

And the fact that he's technically an unregistered citizen. He can never find a proper job. As long as he's with me, I'll be footing the bills my whole life!

" _Miko_ ," Sesshoumaru said, looking up to address her properly now. "What exactly are your concerns?"

"I'm returning to bed."

" _Miko_."

"I need to work overtime tomorrow. Probably burn my weekends as well. Ah, this is the life I have chosen after all."

Sesshoumaru did not want to follow her. He wanted to stay in the kitchen, open the cabinets and help himself to the candy shelf. But despite her strained countenance, underneath the  _miko'_ s emotions were like a raging sea in a storm. Her heart revolted like a bird thrashing in its cage, and its violent reverberations were echoing in his chest.

So it has come to this, he told himself. Why? Why did the  _miko_  have to constantly feel so much? They came like a barrage of arrows targeting his hollow self. Emotions that were unfamiliar to him,  _human_  emotions. And for some, they lingered on to him like a bad aftertaste.

Sesshoumaru found his feet moving on their own accord. Kagome shut the door in his face. She struggled to compose herself—she was on the verge of exploding, and her body was shaking.

She couldn't take it anymore. She shouted at him through the door.

"I brought you here for a reason, Sesshoumaru! Not because I wanted a  _house husband_! Not because I wanted someone to take care of my chores and my meals!" She slided down the door, her fist banging against it. She didn't know where the tears running down her face were coming from. "I don't  _want_  you to take care of me. I want... All I want are  _answers_..."

"We have been through this conversation countless of times." He knelt from the other side, his voice empty, emotionless. And yet he felt anything but.

"You never tell me anything… Anything that's conclusive. I'm always here waiting like a complete fool."

"Perhaps because you never ask the right questions."

"Stop twisting the fact. You know well what I mean."

There was no sound from him. Kagome wiped her tears. Yes, she was a fool. What was she expecting, after all? It was all wishing thinking. Binding his soul to her, expecting him to adhere to her orders. He was a  _demon_  . He was who he was. He would not accede to her, just because. Only when he wanted to.

"And they lived happily ever after," came his voice quietly.

She lifted her head.

"And they lived happily ever after," Sesshoumaru said again. "T'was the ending of your feudal fairytale that you so desperately seek. The  _taijiya_  marries the priest, the hero gets his deserving accolades, and the orphan gains a new family."

"But you said… There was a fire in the village."

"Yes. My half-brother assisted to save those trapped underneath the rubble, with his fire-rat robe." A poignant pause came. "And I remember this because Rin… Rin was one of the survivors."

Rin! Yes, there was a little girl who travelled alongside him. So she too, was safe?

"Is this really the truth?" her voice quaked.

He shook his head behind the door. "It is the truth that you need," he answered.

The door creaked open. She stood meekly behind it, and his eyes instantly sought hers; red-rimmed, sunken with tears.  _Embarrassed_  . Something in him leapt. Something deep inside, that was as indiscernible as the bond she held over him. He pushed the door and closed it behind him.

The  _miko_  was gazing at her feet, hiding her face.

"Supress your aura. Do not retaliate," Sesshoumaru told her. Kagome looked up in slight confusion.

And then suddenly she was flushed against his chest, and his heavy arms surrounded her. Kagome instantly felt tiny. And warm. Sesshoumaru was warm, just like any other human person. Kagome could feel his heartbeat vividly on her skin. It matched hers, like a wild bird inside a cage…

She smiled to herself. Didn't he use to refrain from physical contact? How things have changed. He had her secured in his arms now. She  _must_  be dreaming. She hadn't really woken up a while ago.

He held her tighter, seeing that she had not hurt him. The  _miko_ 's body was so small, but right against his, somehow. His lips lowered near her ear. "It will be alright."

Her hands reached around him.  _That's right._  That was what she told him when she had held him the first time. That everything would be alright.

Kagome closed her eyes. A feeble sigh escaped her. She wanted to believe in him. If she did, would everything really be over? Would the past remained as it should be, undisturbed, its secrets locked in a distant chamber?

Even if…even if a ghost from her past was right before her?

"A happily ever after," Kagome murmured in his embrace. "For everyone, but us."

_To be continued!_

* * *

**A/N: YAYYYYY A HUGGG! Wow! Can't believe I have 11 chapters out of this fic. This is the longest I've been for a commitment-phobic writer.**

**Anyways thought I'll use this opportunity to speak about my original characters, one by one. Let's talk about the head priest of Yukino-jingu, the ever-"charming" Jyohaku.**

**He is similar in a lot of ways to Kagome. Both have a colourful past they were forced to leave, and both are serving the shrine out of a sense of responsibility. And both are complete hotheads!**   
**His completely jaded outlook on life explains his older-than-his-age persona. Unlike Kagome, he has firmly shut the door behind him. I didn't want Kagome to get tagged to some ole bald priest, so that's how he came about. (why an ex-wrestler tho)**

**That's all, for now! :)**


	12. What Happened at Tokyo Aqua Park?

**What Happened at Tokyo Aqua Park?**

_‘I betrayed him.’_

_Rin played with the kanzashi hair pin in her hands, twirling it around with her fingers. It was cast in gold, the ornament shaped like a flower, sparkling with at least three different jewels._

_She was thirteen now, and pretty enough to win a considerable amount of suitors. But only one was daring enough to catch a good hold on her, and that was Magoichi from the Saika family. And how could she deny him? The Saika clan was a household name in the Edo villages. They were prosperous, influential, and wielded frightening political power. Rin was a nobody. She should be_ _honoured_ _they would want an orphan like her to be part of their family._

_The hairpin gleamed in the lamplight._

_‘I betrayed him and he called me an ingrate. He would never forgive me.’_

_“Rin-chan!” someone called from outside. “The carriage is here to pick you up!”_

_Rin started and her hand gripped in reflex. Using a comb, she wound her hair up and tight, before slipping the hair pin through. She smoothed her sides of her hair in the mirror, and found herself unable to look in her own eyes. She clasped her hands over her shuddering chest._

_“Please forgive me,” she whispered to no one. Then she turned and headed out in the sun and to the carriage, which would bring her to Magoichi and her new life._

* * *

“Are you excited yet?” she was asking him inside the train. “Tokyo Aqua Park, I mean.”

Sesshoumaru brushed his palms slowly against the feel of twill on his chinos trousers. The landscape of Tokyo, a congested hodgepodge of tall structures and squat buildings against the backdrop of dusky-blue mountains zoomed past his vision through the windows. The rolling slopes of Mount Fuji were the only things his eyes could recognize.

“I am, as you are.”

“It gets really packed on weekends. That's why I took a weekday leave from work.” Then her head ducked sheepishly beside him. “You probably don't know what that means.”

He glanced at the woman beside him. Kagome was giving him a somewhat crooked smile, as she brushed her hair behind her ear.

“Special arrangements were made for a more comfortable experience. I understand,” Sesshoumaru said. “And I thank you for that.”

 _He acknowledges it_ , she thought to herself,  _and he’s appreciative. That’s…good._  Then she laughed. “The priest isn't really happy about it though. But shoot him. Ah speaking of which, he wants some lottery numbers. He has this strange notion that you can predict the next windfall.”

Sesshoumaru’s nose flared slightly. “He's the same one I attacked, isn't he? Do you know who he is? Or at least,  _was_?”

“You mean his previous vocation?”

He shook his head. “ _Miko_. You’re like the sun, where planets revolve around you, and yet you are unaware of their existences. As long as they do not misbehave in this life, no harm will come to them. In this life, let it be decreed that only I…am yours.”

He spoke with such an emotionless conviction in his voice, as though it was the one and resolute truth, but it only served to confuse her. Especially his last line that stood out the most.

_Only I…am yours? Is he talking about how he is binded to me?_

The mood had turned sombre, somewhat. Only seconds ago they were talking about the aqua park. Kagome frowned, as the train pulled to a stop and the station’s name was announced in loud speakers. She stood up excitedly, tapping his shoulder. “We’re here now. Let’s go!”

* * *

They came here to see the dolphins after all, and Kagome hadn’t seen them in more than a decade. They sat through the dolphin show, of which its attendees were mostly made of eager foreigners taking shade with their umbrellas.

The dolphins’ backs glistened under the sun as they leapt out of the water to perform their tricks. The trainers threw them their rewards from a bucket of herrings. Each time the dolphins landed back underwater, crying shrilly, a big splash would drizzle over the audience. Kagome would giggle and clap her hands.

Beside her Sesshoumaru watched through the whole spectacle with a raised eyebrow. It was his first animal show, to say the least.

They visited the other parts of the aquarium park, visiting the different kinds of aquariums that showcased a different habitat. From penguins to turtles, the crowd proved to be a hassle even on a weekday, and Kagome found herself clutching on Sesshoumaru’s arm several times. After she apologized to him for the third time, Sesshoumaru sighed and told her that it was alright to hold on to him, lest they would get separated.

They managed to squeeze themselves on a bench, before the impressive viewing gallery of the Ocean Habitat. Enjoying a hushed moment, their eyes soaked in the mesmerizing schools of fishes traversing through the waters slowly, a couple of large Manta rays at the topmost, a lone hammerhead shark at the corner.

Kagome found herself yawning after awhile. She released a long sigh. “I couldn't get a wink last night. You know, you really need to check the roof. I keep hearing footsteps on it. I think we have a raccoon living up there, or something. Been going on for weeks.”

Sesshoumaru smirked. “So you've noticed it already.”

“The racoon?”

“The  _zashiki warashi_.”

Kagome felt as if he had splashed a bucket of cold water on her head. A  _zashiki warashi?_  Wasn’t that a kind of— “You mean a  _child youkai!_ In my house?” Sesshoumaru nodded firmly, and she realized then he wasn’t trying to pull on her leg. She wished it was the case though. Suddenly all those flashbacks made sense—that blurred little figure at her door, voices in the night. She stared at her clammy hands. For how long had it made her house its home? Sesshoumaru knew about it—spoke to it, even—and yet he had told her nothing.

“You know what they says about those things, Sesshoumaru. It brings fortune to the owner but misfortune will befall if it decides to leave the house. Please don't scare it away.”

“On the contrary. I believe she likes me. The  _zashiki warashi_  has been lending me strength. Did it occur to you that I have become much stronger?”

Kagome nodded glumly. “Yes, you don’t feed as regularly and you don't need the amulet anymore. Sometimes I wonder if…”

Suddenly Sesshoumaru stood up. “The human traffic is increasing. We should head to a less disruptive place.”

They walked off, and ended at a dark, quiet section displaying different species of jellyfish. The tanks were equipped with a colourful lighting effect that would change every minute or so. Before them was a lone Portuguese man-of-war, its long, deadly tentacles trailing underneath it. Ethereal and diaphanous, it floated and bobbed slowly, its luminescent body glowing in gradient colours.

He turned back to her. “You were saying?”

Kagome rubbed her arm self-consciously. “I just thought that when the times comes, you might leave one day, when you no longer need me. Of course, that has always been at the back of your mind, hasn't it?”

“You fool.” There was a spike of anger in Sesshoumaru’s voice, that surprised even her. “Why do you seem unaware of the implications of the binding ritual? The terms are not that simple.” He grinded his jaw, his eyes hard-set on the glass display. “What did you sacrifice for me to be here?” She opened her mouth but he cut her. “I am not talking about those bones in the backyard. That was for my body. In exchange for my soul, what did you give up?”

Kagome peered down, biting on her lip. She should worry, shouldn’t she? After all she knew what she was getting into when she decided all this. And yet not even a sliver of fear wormed itself to her. She laughed weakly, scratching her cheek.

“I will eventually pay for it dearly one day, won't I? A soul for a soul.”

Sesshoumaru then relapsed into another one of his silences. Kagome sighed. This was not what she had imagined when she planned to come here. She wanted the both of them to take a break, and enjoy themselves. Not engaged in this…depressing, sobering talk.

“Show me your right hand.”

Kagome looked at him, perplexed. Nevertheless she raised her hand to him. He held it gently, then traced the line of scars along her finger.

“Has it been that long?” His eyes were casting an eerie light in the dim area. “Do you… _yearn_  to feed me?”

She didn’t stop him when he pulled her behind a column, away from the main pathway. The small space was enough for just the both of them. Her body was braced flat against the side of the jellyfish tank, an arm gripped tightly.

He traced her finger along his bottom lip, before trailing lower, the tip of his fangs grazing her. His eyes never left hers, never blinked.

“Your pulse is quickening,” Sesshoumaru observed in a quiet voice. “I sense…sheer anticipation, and…” Her hand was quivering in his. His lips brushed her skin, and Kagome shut her eyes tightly. “It seems like your skin is sensitive here. It's causing an interesting blend of reactions. It makes you…blush.”

Her other hand pawed at his chest feebly. “Sesshoumaru. Don't…don't say such things.”

“What else makes you blush,  _miko_? I wish to learn all there is about you.” His voice descended to a low whisper, so hoarse even he could not recognize it. “ _Higurashi Kagome_. I wish to learn… _everything!_ ”

His teeth sank into her skin. Kagome released a strangled cry. The gradient lights from the tank were softly illuminating the features on his face, as his lips gently drew blood from her pulse. Orange-red, then slowly, indigo-purple. Kagome froze, her breath slowly leaving her throat. His face, along with the dancing fire in his bright eyes, would forever burn in her memories.

_Sesshoumaru… When... When did your eyes become so entrancing? I can't… I can't look away…_

_* * *_

She placed the slip of paper on his wooden desk. “Your lottery numbers,” Kagome said.

Jyohaku steepled his hands across his face and frowned heavily at her. The  _miko_  had dark rings on her eyes, and she looked like she had skipped combing her hair that morning.

“Did something happened to you? Or how should I rephrase it—did something happened at Tokyo Aqua Park?”

Her lips pulled at the corners, before she looked up to match his penetrating gaze. “You got your numbers, Jyohaku-sama. Now you have to keep your end of the deal this weekend.”

The priest’s eyebrows lowered. “Get out of my office.”

 Kagome was laughing as she exited her way out. Amari was just on her way to his office, carrying a stack of heavy, yellow-paged tomes. She stopped to look at Kagome’s retreating back for a few good seconds, before her eyes shifted slowly to the door.

She wondered what was so funny.

**_To be continued!_ **

**A/N: Woo-hoo, a new progress in their relationship! *dances a jig* Let’s turn on the sexual tension up a notch! While still keeping the rating to T! Hahahaha. So following last chapters’ footnote, I will continue to throw meaningless trivia on my OCs. This time it’s Amari’s turn!**

**Amari Kirihata, while she does play the fluffy adorable rabbit, can really pack a punch if she needs to. I’m guessing she’s the kind of girl who’s actually a closet psycho? Nah? Just kidding? I thought she would make a good companion to her spunky _miko_  senior. Also, if it isn’t already obvious enough from the first chapter, she has a weird crush on the priest. Ah, I can’t wait to write the double date chapter!**


	13. The Good Husband

**The Good Husband**

Kagome tottered into the kitchen with her loose pajamas, sniffling. She had taken a brisk evening shower after work, and her hair was matted in a disheveled, damp knot.

"Have you seen my pills?" Sesshoumaru heard her call out in a cranky voice. "I put them in the fridge somewhere."

He shifted his attention from the television. "Do you mean  _medicine_? I placed them in a kit."

"Could you get them for me and a glass of water, please? I think I'm coming down with a fever."

She reached under her blanket and laid down miserably, feeling hot on her skin, but cold in her bones. Her nerves, along with her mood, was grating on her too. She placed her hand over her forehead and groaned.

"This just sucks," she muttered. "It's the weekend already. Now I'm not sure if I can meet Amari and the others tomorrow."

Sesshoumaru entered her room after a long while. She lifted her head groggily. She could taste sand in her throat.

He came in with a tray that held her medicine, a glass of water and a bowl of food, and he placed it on the floor beside the  _futon_. Kagome observed with a furtive eye as his robe shifted when he sat down, one leg propped up.

"You have been working hard for the both of us," Sesshoumaru said. "So it is my duty now to take care of you." He read the labels on her pill packaging. "It says here you need to take your medicine after your meal. So I've prepared some simple porridge."

Kagome rose in bed, scratching her head sheepishly. "Geez, you really play the role of a house husband very well, don't you?"

Sesshoumaru peered up, a small smile growing on his face. "It is a simple role to play...when nobody is watching."

_God, everything he gives one of those smiles I just die a little inside._

She wasn't really that sick, yet. But he was already treating her like she was living her last days on earth as a terminally-ill patient. She allowed him to spoon-feed her the porridge, silently wondering when was the last time anyone ever pampered her like that. Probably back when she was still living at her mom's house.

"Stay still," Sesshoumaru suddenly said. Kagome did so, and he leaned forward to lick a drop of porridge dripping at the edge of her lips.

Immediately Kagome reeled back as if she had been zapped by a live wire.

"W-What was that for?!"

"I hate food wastage," Sesshoumaru answered matter-of-factly.

Kagome groaned inwardly. Should she even try to explain? Even a five-year-old would know better. "You can't...do things like that, Sesshoumaru."

"Why not?"

She looked away, biting her lip. "It might...lead to other things."

"Such as?"

She smacked her pillow. "Gosh. You've watched loads of movies to know what I'm talking about. Maybe it doesn't affect you, but I'm only human."

"I do not understand," he replied in his usual, unaffected tone.

Kagome sighed and hugged her pillow. "Never mind."

"I do not understand how it can lead to the worst." Sesshoumaru held her chin gently and lifted her face. He leaned in. "Your soul is already entwined with mine. What fate can be worser than that?"

Kagome felt her face growing hot. The idiot! Having no sense of one's personal space! Did he have any idea how his actions were affecting her? She was a regular young woman, after all.

A click of tongue escaped him, then a rush of breath. " _Miko_ , are you aware that when you blush, you exude a heady, intoxicating scent?" Kagome quaked a little. She recognized this voice. It was the same one he used at the aqua park, when he had drew blood from her skin. That had been a heated, and painfully intense moment. Suddenly he pushed her onto the  _futon_ , and before she could make sense of everything, his body dangerously hovered over hers, her wrists locked down.

A quiet growl emitted from his throat. Even in the dim room, the sharp tips of his teeth were gleaming into view, his eyes growing brighter. His face dipped down, closer. "It compels to my inner beast. Did I not tell you I want to learn everything... about you?"

At last Kagome summoned what strength she had, and kicked him hard in the shin. "Stop that!" she yelled. "I'm not some kind of guinea pig for you to test your curiosity on!"

Sesshoumaru released her and sat back. He frowned. " _Miko_ , you...entice me. In ways that even this Sesshoumaru cannot comprehend."

Kagome rubbed her wrists, scowling. "That's your fault for being so close to me!"

"Hn. So it is my fault now, is it?"

He collected her tray and stood, his face grim. "H-hey," Kagome said, but he strode out of her room without another word.

Kagome landed her head back into her pillow.

For God's sake, she thought. She was going to be even sicker than possible.

_* * *_

_Idiot! Always acting clueless about everything, when he knows _exactly_  what's going on! I swear, he's just twisting me around his little finger! I should start setting some house rules. Like, maintain a distance of five feet from me at least, at all times!_

"Did you fight with your housemate?" Amari enquired innocently as they trimmed the camellia bushes in the garden.

Kagome snapped her cutters a little harder. "Why do you think that way?"

"Because it's the only reason for you to go to work in such an angry mood."

"Who's angry?" she said, pruning the leaves at a dangerous speed. "I'm having my usual daily rant, that's all! Plus I'm having the sniffles! That said, he's really annoying at times! Now he's giving me a cold shoulder since morning ever though it's clearly  _his_  fault that last night happened!"

Amari gulped. "O-okay. I hope you're looking forward for tonight's dinner then. Hopefully it brings a smile to your face." She clapped her hands together. "Gee, I'm so excited! Finally the both of you get to meet! It was so hard to make my brother agree to it..."

Kagome's eyes bulged. "Huh? Oh god, that's right. I didn't tell him I wasn't coming home for dinner. I've got a double-date."

"H-hold on. It's a double-date?" Amari went. "Who's the fourth person?"

"Higurashi, Kirihata," Jyohaku called, stepping into the garden. "Tonight is still on, isn't it?"

Amari hurled her cutters into the camellia bush. "You invited the head priest along?!"

* * *

Kagome placed the menu flat on the table. The place was crowded, busy with spirited chatter, as to be expected on a weekend. Amari had chosen a popular cafe in the middle of town, apparently the same one she had been to with Sesshoumaru a few months ago. What a bloody coincidence, she thought glumly. As if there is no other place.

Amari's fingers jostled against her phone. Her brother was late--"on the way" as of thirty minutes ago. He was always late for every thing! Maybe he was going to bail out last minute. She'll murder him if that happened.

Jyohaku was seated in front of her. Amari observed the way he was frowning over the main entrées in the menu, filled mostly with Western fare with tongue-twisting names. The priest's hair had received a fresh trim, his wayward, dark tendrils effectively weeded out. He lived alone and yet his coat looked painstakingly ironed. Dry-cleaners maybe? And she could smell light cologne.

She felt her spirit ebb out slightly. Why didn't Kagome-sama tell her  _he_  was coming? Maybe she should have chosen a more traditional restaurant, she thought.

"So uh… What's your brother like, Amari-chan?" Kagome asked.

Amari jolted in surprise. "Ah, well, he's an insurance agent. And he has his own apartment, quite close to where you live, Kagome-sama!"

Kagome raised her brows. An insurance agent? Must be a pretty smooth guy, then.

"Sorry, I'm late," someone muttered, walking towards their table. He was tall, hands shoved in a leather motorcycle jacket, a flu mask on his face. He sat at the empty chair beside Amari, in front of Kagome. "Got the sniffles, man. I almost didn't want to go."

He yanked his mask down, licking his lips, particularly at the set of pierced rings. Kagome realized it was really a night of sheer coincidences.

Amari's brother was the Family Mart guy.  _"Manager Ichiro Kirihata at your service, madam!"_  he had told her one time. Kirihata, like Amari Kirihata. Darn, she really need to start listening to people properly.

"Eh, Ichiro-kun?" Kagome laughed nervously. "Small world, huh." Ichiro gaped wordlessly at the woman before him, like a deer caught in headlights.

"K-Kagome-sama." He ran a hand over his hair and pointed to his flabbergasted sister. "Amari's colleague. A  _miko_. Of course. I should have pieced the puzzle together." He shrugged and started laughing with her. "Small world? More like a small  _town_."

Amari stared at her brother, then at Kagome. "You guys know each other?"

"Of course! He works at the convenie--"

Ichiro instantly leaned forward and clamped a hand onto Kagome's mouth. "Don't say it!" he whispered fiercely, "She doesn't know I'm working there!" And then he turned to Amari and laughed. "A client! She's just a client! Isn't that so, Kagome-sama?"

Kagome laughed weakly alongside with Ichiro. Amari is really naive, she thought. There was no way Ichiro was an insurance agent, not with his bleached cornrows and piercings.

Jyohaku narrowed his eyes at the laughing trio, still gripping his menu and feeling the least amused. And what was he, some kind of chaperone for these youngsters tonight?  _I'm just here because of the lottery numbers_ , he chanted to himself, _I'm just here because of the lottery numbers..._

"So how old are you, Ichiro-kun?" Kagome asked after some time, when their food had arrived. She stirred her ice-blended mocha. She still couldn't get over the fact that the guy she was seeing almost every week at the Family Mart was the same one Amari had been dying to introduce. And he was having the sniffles too, just like her. The world must work on a strange system of coincidences, one after another.

"Twenty-eight," he said, cutting his sirloin steak. Throughout the whole dinner he hadn't dared to lift his face to look at her. He must be horribly embarrassed. Although she wondered why he had lied about his job in the first place. His family must have placed high expectations on him.

She smiled at him. "Oh really? Then you're three years my senior, and seven years junior of Jyohaku-sama!"

Amari's hands flew over to her mouth. She looked like she was going to have a heart attack. "Huh? The head priest is only 35 years old?"

Jyohaku gripped his cutlery tightly. "How old did you think I was?"

"A priest?" Ichiro sputtered to his sister. "Why the hell is your date a priest? Is there no other guy you're interested in?"

"W-who says I am?!" Amari retorted, beet-root red.

Jyohaku choked over his fish and chips--apparently it was the only thing in the menu he could pronounce. Kagome patted the priest's back empathetically. "So uh, since this is a kind of singles' meet, what kind of women are you into, Jyohaku-sama?"

_Please say something along the lines of "quiet and shy" or "innocent and bashful"..._

The priest coughed and wiped his mouth with a serviette. He paused and seemed to consider her question deeply. "Well she has to be someone I see as my equal, of course. She needs to be a capable woman, if she is going to help me run the shrine."

Amari's eyes widened. "Does she have to be a  _miko_?"

He sipped his cup of coffee. "Well, not necessarily. Although my mother was one herself..."

Suddenly Kagome slammed her hand on the bar, eliciting a jolt from the other three. "No. You  _can't_  do that. You can't marry a woman of your equal standing, Jyohaku-sama!"

"Why not, pray tell?"

"Because  _I_  want to be your equal. But I don't want to be married to  _you_."

Jyohaku's eyebrows shot upwards over his cup. His dumbfounded expression diminished when Kagome's sudden dismay made sense to him, and his cup shook as he placed it down. He broke into a loud, raucous laughter.

"And damn hell if I ever get married to a wife like you! Looks like you'll be an apprentice forever, Higurashi!" Jyohaku wiped his tears. "Oh, my belly hasn't ached from such a good laugh in a while."

Kagome started to weep in mock distress. "I'm stuck in a freaking stalemate now. Inari-okami, help me!"

Amari stared at her trembling hands over her lap.  _Why do I feel so horrible?_

Someone patted on Kagome's shoulder while they were queuing at the cashier. Kagome whirled around, surprised to see a familiar face. It was Ayumi, an old friend she had not seen since her wedding.

"Hey Kagome-chan! I haven't seen you in a while!"

"Ayumi-chan! My gosh, how are you?"

Ayumi beamed. "I'm doing good, thank you." Her old friend still looked the same, although slightly weary, with some weight under her chin. Kagome saw a man with a child behind her, and smiled at them. Quickly Ayumi introduced her to her family, while Kagome introduced them to her friends.

She looked over Kagome's shoulder at Ichiro.

"Geez. You guys are like the ultimate high-school sweethearts, huh," Ayumi said, nodding with a smile. "Still together all these years."

"What?" Kagome said, turning to look at Ichiro.

Ayumi fingered her nose and pointed at him. "He's the...guy who disrupted our school musical, isn't he? The shrine-worker dude. Or something."

Kagome laughed nervously. "Ah, I think you got the wrong guy. That is...entirely a different person you're talking about."

Ayumi clasped a hand over her mouth. "Oh really! My bad! Just that, there's a really heavy resemblance. I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright."

Jyohaku rolled his eyes at the back. "What's the plan after this?" he asked Amari.

Karaoke!" The Kirihata siblings answered in unison, a strange fire alight in their eyes. Jyohaku wished he hadn't asked.

* * *

"Do you know the kind of songs you sing reflect the kind of person you are?" Ichiro said to Kagome, as they were poring together over the song catalogue on the small screen. A carton of beer cans was placed on the table, half-opened, along with some snacks.

The dark room shimmered with disco lights. In front of them Amari was slurring over the microphone, as she danced awkwardly in front of the priest.

"I'm comin' at yaaa/'Cause I know you got a baaad reputation/Doesn't matter,'cause you giiive me temptation/And we don't gotta think 'bout nooothin'"

 _She's definitely drunk!_  their thoughts screamed.

It was Ichiro's turn next, as he began wailing in a high pitch. "And wheeen you gooo/Would you even turn to saaa-ay/I don't love youuu, like I loved youuu/Yester-daaaaay!"

_Why so angsty?!_

The microphone shook in Jyohaku's hand. It was the first time any of them ever heard a priest sing. "It's all ooover nooow/Nothing leeeft to saaay/Just the sooound of the orchestra plaaaayingggg..."

_Who would dare break the priest's heart?!_

Kagome cleared her throat. Here goes nothing, she thought.

"I must confeeess, that my lonelineeeess is bringing me dooooown/Don't you know I still belieeeeve/That's you will be heeeeereee and give me a siiiiiign/Hit me baby one more--" Someone pressed 'next' on the remote control and Kagome screamed in anguish. "Jyohaku-samaaaa how could youuuu!"

"This night has been more tiring than I expected," Ichiro said outside the karaoke lounge, as he smoked a cigarette over a railing beside the priest. Their singing session had concluded and it was time to go home.

"Agreed. Especially when you have a pair of dead-drunk girls with you," Jyohaku said, smoking on his own stick. Both men shook their heads and sighed, as said girls clung on their backs tightly, on the verge of collapsing.

"Hey, I'm not drunk!" Kagome snapped, slapping the priest's shoulder. She was slightly tipsy maybe, but not drunk.

Ichiro smiled at her, then glanced at his sister doubling over a ditch, retching. He walked ahead with Kagome slowly on the pavement. Both were still shaking their heads in disbelief.

For Ichiro, it was too close to be a coincidence. Was fate playing tricks on him? He could just imagine the gods laughing up above, watching them waltz into their plan. They knew, they knew he was in love with her and they just had to set this up...

He crammed his hands in his pockets. "So uh, your friend that you bumped into just now. She said that I looked familiar?"

"Yeah. Like an old friend."

"An old friend or an old lover?" Ichiro had meant it as a joke of course, but Kagome instantly blushed. He bit his tongue--her flustered face had lowered his guard for a moment, he could hear the gods snickering--and for awhile he wondered if there was some element of truth in his suggestion. She wasn't telling him anything more, though.

He cleared his throat. "Do you want to, you know, exchange numbers? We could meet up again, even though I know we kinda meet regularly at the store but what I mean is--"

Kagome giggled. "It's okay. I'm totally fine with the idea. I've always thought you're a cool guy, Ichiro-kun. A little shy, but still cool. Somehow I'm glad it's you who turned out to be Amari's brother."

Suddenly her smile faded. She stared at something in the distance, and her heart did a double-beat, a feeling akin to panic arresting her. Panic? Why would she be? She wasn't doing anything wrong...

Sesshoumaru was standing some metres up ahead. Even from the distance Kagome could see his stare boring straight into them. One half on his face was cloaked in the nightly shadows, the other half glowing in the blinking neon lights of the drinking establishments lining the pavement. The memory back at the aqua park, of last night, suddenly surged back into her mind, and she shut her eyes.

She clutched her bag closer to her. "Sorry, Ichiro-kun, but I...I gotta go, like right now."

Ichiro frowned up ahead. "That's your housemate, isn't it? Did you tell him to pick you up?"

"Um, yeah. Kinda. Tell Amari-chan and Jyohaku-sama I'm sorry for leaving so soon. I'll call them up tomorrow!"

She ran off. A breeze passed him, leaving behind her fragrance and the echoing of her voice in his ears. Ichiro saw as Sesshoumaru continued to drill his gaze towards him, even though Kagome was already at his side.

A cold shiver suddenly spooked him. It felt as if the strange man wanted him to melt and disintegrate at that very spot.

**_Wait for the next chapter!_   
Song Credits: -  
 **Amari: "Side to Side" by Ariana Grande, lyrics written byÂ Martin Sandberg, Onika Tanya Maraj, Alexander Erik Kronlund, Ilya Savan Kotecha, Ariana Grande  
Ichiro: "I Don't Love You" by My Chemical Romance, lyrics written byÂ Ray Toro, Frank Iero, Bob Bryar, Gerard Way, Michael Way  
Jyohaku: "The Last Waltz" by Engelbert Humperdink, lyrics written byÂ Barry Mason, Les Reed  
Kagome: "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears, lyrics written byÂ ** **Martin Sandberg** ~~~~**  



	14. The Good Wife

**A/N: Before I kickstart this long-delayed chapter, I have something to share. Recently I've been receiving heart-warming reviews for this fic and I feel absolutely enthralled by the response. It really means a lot because I'm always struggling as a writer and I'm always questioning myself if everything is worth it. There have been many times when I feel like throwing in the towel and giving up writing fanfics, especially when I compare myself to other authors. Anyway long story short, I guess even if my audience is a small one I will still keep on pushing for you guys, and because for the simple joy in writing itself. It seems to be the only thing that can keep my sanity intact. *sniffles***

**Anyhoo! Guess what! If you aren't aware, RannyYunny recently made a fanart for Binded! And it showcases Sesshoumaru in a Hello Kitty Apron. Yay!!! I know you guys are curious as to how Sessh would appear like so... Go check it out here, and go check her other art pieces as well! <3**

**https://rannyunny.tumblr.com/post/173852194660/fanfiction-fanart-binded-by-lucy-morningstar**

**Okay enough rambling! Please forgive me!**

**The Good Wife**

"It is...big," Sesshoumaru observed.

Kagome perched her hands on her hips. "And it better be." She walked to the new queen-sized bed that would be the new fixture in her room, and spell an end to her futon-padded nights. She pushed against the mattress, still sealed in plastic, with an appraising hand. "Cost a quarter of my savings."

"Hn. I suppose it fits two." With that last remark, Sesshoumaru turned to leave, attending the boiling  _dashi_  stock in the kitchen. She watched his retreating back.

 _Hey,_ she wanted to say, _I wasn't thinking of you at all when I bought it. But now you just had to mention something like that..._

She stared at the bed, and it suddenly represented a different image altogether when she had chanced upon it at the furniture store, and it was far from the wholesome idea of a good sleep.

* * *

“ _Ground control to Major Tom_.”

Ichiro’s voice was like a bullet, ricocheting off her mind. Kagome blinked, and all of a sudden she remembered she was sitting in a crowded Denny’s having dinner on a Thursday night, her date wearing an amused smile of his face.

“What? Ground control?”

Ichiro dipped a french fry in chilli with a somewhat disappointed look. “Space Oddity.” Seeing the further confused look on her face, he continued, “David Bowie. Come on. Gee, you’re really not on earth, are you?”

Kagome flushed in embarrassment, and toyed with the straw in her chocolate milkshake. “I’m sorry, Ichiro-kun. I, uh…”  _I’m really spaced out on a date with a guy, aren’t I? No wonder they never call back._  She shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Um, speaking of space, what is your favourite planet?”

“Mars, only ‘cause it’s named after the Roman god of war.” Ichiro waved his hand dismissively. “Forget planets. What do you think of black holes, Kagome-sama?”

Kagome widened her eyes as she sucked through her straw. “What do I think of black holes?”

Ichiro leaned back in his seat, his brown eyes regarding her more seriously now. Kagome had never seen him in that manner—he was always laid-back and shying away from eye contact. As though her answer would either make or break whatever conviction he had placed in her.

“Yes. Do you believe that they can distort time and space? Things like that.”

Her eyebrows quirked only for a split-second, but she was sure he had caught it. Kagome poked her fork through her carbonara spaghetti and fed herself. “That’s a…pretty deep subject if you’re going there. I mean, there are a lot of theories—“

Ichiro cut her. “Actually, I’ve been following Michio Kaku’s works for years now and gone through all of his books, and I honestly believe time-warps and parallel universes are not only possible—they  _have_  occurred throughout the history of mankind.”

He was jabbing his finger on the table-top for emphasis now, like a school lecturer laying down statistics, and not the fumbling store manager she was used to. Kagome stilled, her large eyes darting across his face. The spaghetti in her mouth had turned cold and soggy, and she didn’t feel like swallowing it anymore.

Ichiro blew out his breath, and ran his fingers through his hair. “Gosh, I’m sorry. You must be thinking I’m such a weirdo now. Like who knew the Family Mart guy was into science-fiction crap, right? You’ve never even heard of Michio Kaku before. My bad. Go ahead and laugh.”

“No, Ichiro,” Kagome said, shaking her head. “I’m perfectly fine with the subject. “I’m just curious as to why you feel so strongly convinced. A normal person would just think of it as pure garbage.”

He smiled tightly at her, then gazed out through the restaurant windows. The skies had turned dark for the night, and it was running pretty late. Sure they weren’t teenagers on tight curfews anymore, but Kagome always looked like the type to be rushing home straight after her work. He had asked her out on a short notice, and it had started to become like a habit recently, these impromptu dinners. And it was nice, sometimes, to see out from her usual work clothes. Although he swore, it was as if she was made for the  _miko_  garb.

“You know what?” he then said. He slided his motorcycle keys off the table and tossed it into his jacket pocket. “Let’s just forget it. I’ll send you home in a while. Don’t want your  _housemate_  to be hounding me for holding you back.”

Kagome giggled, as she hastened to finish her food. “Can I ask you a personal question, though?” Ichiro continued, still smiling. Kagome glanced up at him. “I know this isn’t the first time I’m asking and I probably don’t have the right to, but. Things are totally  _platonic_  between you and him, right?”

“Yeah. Totally,” Kagome replied, staring at him dead in the eye.

* * *

"Uh,  _tonkotsu ramen_?"

Kagome stared at the steaming bowl on the dining table. On usual evenings she would have scarfed it down without a second nudge, but her stomach was still swimming with the spaghetti and fries and that thick milkshake she just had. She couldn't possibly fit in another bowl of noodles with pork cutlets now, can she?

She peered at Sesshoumaru sitting across her at the table. He had leaned forward, and arranged his hands in a steeple that hid a good portion of his face. She could only see the way his eyes seemed to be scrutinizing her. God, when did he learn to be so…

"Eat," he ordered.

Kagome picked her chopsticks slowly and ducked her head in a docile manner. She managed a flimsy smile at him but his expression didn't change. Sesshoumaru had been awfully cold with her for the past few weeks. As though there was something he was displeased about, and yet refused to share with her. The current situation on hand was not making things any more comfortable for her.

What was it? It couldn't possibly be because she had started seeing Ichiro, right? Kagome knew Sesshoumaru had an unfounded dislike for him, but...

She frowned. It was none of his business with whom she was with.

And with that, Kagome soldiered through her meal even though she was close to throwing up. She would not show him her weakness, nor the slight guilt for having dinner outside without informing him first—which was a pity, really because the delicious full-bodied flavours of the  _ramen_  was wasted on her full stomach.

Needless to say she couldn't move after she slurped the last drop of soup, and she landed on her back on the tatami mat, groaning miserably.

Sesshoumaru cleared away her dishes quietly. Kagome was half-crying as she made her way slowly to her new bed. The mattress was as stiff as her belly. She shifted her body to the side when he entered her room.

"Why do you turn your face from me?"

Kagome grinded her jaw, staring frustratedly at the wall before her. "Nothing," she said.

"A good  _miko_  does not lie."

She scowled wordlessly. Then she heard the bed creak, felt the imbalance of weight. She hugged her pillow tighter to her chest.

"This will be my first experience on a Western-style bed. It is not to my liking, I'm afraid."

A click of a tongue escaped from her mouth. "Then don't sleep on it," Kagome muttered.

A long silence stretched between them. Finally Sesshoumaru removed himself from the bed's edge, and switched off the lights.

"Have a good rest," she heard before the door closed.

In reply, Kagome covered her face with the pillow, trying to shut his voice out from her ears.

_To be continued!_


	15. An Element of Surprise

**A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for reading up thus far! Thought of beefing up this chapter since the last one was kinda short. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing this. =)**

**An Element of Surprise**

Amari's slice of beef slipped from her chopsticks, before it plopped back into the bed of rice in her bento box. She gasped. 

"You guys haven't been talking for a month?" she exclaimed. "B-b-but you live in the same house and you see each other every day!" 

Kagome scoffed. "Yeah right. You'll be surprised of how our daily schedule now conflicts with each other.  I wake up in the morning and he's already gone, and when I come home, he'll be seated at the couch watching the TV without another word." 

"Where does he go during the day? Isn't he supposed to always stay home as your butler?" 

"Well, Sesshoumaru has never been the type to share, and I've never bothered asking. And for the last time, Amari-chan, he isn't my butler."

Amari pouted. As usual the two  _miko_  were having their lunch at the garden benches and airing any grievances plaguing the self, which was always aplenty. It had become a daily affair, sitting with their home-cooked meals—they could be giggling over Kagome's dramatic account of a recent incident ("I got drenched to my undergarments in the rain yesterday, did  _you_  get wet, Amari-chan?") and the next second their voices would be reduced to discreet whispers, as they indulged in gossip about the head priest ("I heard he was married once, Kagome-sama! Can you believe that?").

For Kagome who now kept minimal contact with her old friends who have since moved on with their lives, she particularly appreciated her moments with Amari, more than the younger miko was aware. 

"But despite all that, he still has time to prepare your meals and clean your house! Even when the both are you are fighting." Amari's brown eyes sparkled as she clasped both hands together. "That's  _real_  dedication there. Or even love, should I say?" 

Kagome chewed her prawn tempura with distaste. Not over the food, but at the mere suggestion of her friend's words. 

"That's just  _mental_. I doubt he even has actual feelings. Most of the time he's just like an empty shell of a person."

She bit her tongue. That had sounded too harsh, and yet it was too late to retract her words. Sesshoumaru was, in a sense, just a spirit housed in an otherwise provisional body. But it wasn't exactly true was it, that he was just an empty shell? Over time he felt like a normal warm-blooded person living with her, with a mind and intellect of his own. Whether he owned a conscience and a moral compass was still beyond her. 

Needless to say his peculiar addiction to TV, and a cleanliness streak that occasionally bordered on an OCD level, were all traits that were somehow personal  _and_  human. And if Sesshoumaru was really void of personality as she'd liked to believe, would he enjoy partaking moments of delight over her discomfort, teasing her reaction every now and then? And what about his stalking tendencies? He was definitely growing possessive of her. 

Maybe that was it. Maybe the sheer realization that she was sharing her home with someone who was slowing affecting her life, was taking a toll on her. Didn't she use to pride on herself as an independent, self-sufficient person? That was why she had moved away from her hometown to step into her vocation, living alone so she could take care of herself. 

Now every time she came home, the dishes would already be done and the floor was spick and span. Her meals were taken care of. Her fingernails, usually long because she had no time to trim them, would suddenly be short in the course of an overnight.

Now it seemed every decision she made, from as little as having to buying an extra Pocky box, to whether she  _should_  go out to have dinner with Ichiro again...involved Sesshoumaru. 

 _And who am I to complain, honestly?_  Kagome thought glumly.  _I'm the one who brought him into my life. I have to be entirely responsible for it. And I'm sure, even though he doesn't speak of it, Sesshoumaru has his own share of troubles as well, adjusting into his new life._ Our _new life._

Was that why she was indirectly always pushing him off? It was all her, wasn't it, creating that rift between them? She was just scared of getting too close to him.

But why? 

"Amari-chan," Kagome said suddenly with a spirited lilt in her voice, "Would you mind accompanying me today after work? I'm thinking of buying a mobile phone." 

"Eh? But weren't you saving up to buy a new bicycle? You've been walking to work to and fro for months now!"

Kagome smiled wistfully, as she finished her meal, then finished it off with hot tea. 

"It's not for me, it's for him. I think it's better for us this way to communicate in each other's absence. All this time I’ve been pasting passive-aggressive notes on the fridge door, which I’m absolutely sure he enjoys ignoring."

Amari looked on emphatically. "Gee, Kagome-sama. It's like you guys are married."

"Precisely, you echo my sentiments well, Kirihata."

The two miko jolted over the sudden male voice interjecting into their conversation. Kagome rolled her eyes as Amari ducked her head. 

"And what did you think, O Great Priest?" Kagome glared over her shoulder. Jyohaku strode into the garden, sinewy arms folded tightly.

"That you looked married."

"Pardon me?" 

"I'm talking about your weight gain, you dumb apprentice. Haven't you noticed it already? You have a double chin now. "

* * *

"I still can't believe it," Kagome said, pawing under her chin miserably as the pair wandered around the shopping mall. "That the stupid priest said I have a double chin."

Amari merely laughed. "Hey cheer up! You got the new phone, haven't you?" 

"Yeah, let's go home now. But first, let's drop by that snack store! I suddenly have a craving for dried seaweed. Did I mention that Sesshoumaru likes them too?" 

They entered the snack store. Amari wafted to the magazine section as Kagome chose her snacks with a judicious squint. 

"Hey Kagome-sama?" 

"Yep?" 

"Do you mind coming here for a while? I just want you to look at something."

Kagome walked over to Amari who was clutching a magazine, peering hard at its cover. It looked like a typical magazine for cosplayers, until Kagome leaned in closer.

"He...kinda looks like your butler, doesn't he?" Amari half-laughed at the model splayed on the cover, portrayed as some sort of an otherworldly elfin race. His warrior clothes and intimidating pose while impressive, did nothing to surpass his distinctive face. 

Kagome wanted to faint right there in the snack store. 

***

" _What, in everything that is holy and pure, is this?!_ "

The magazine smacked onto the table. Sesshoumaru merely graced it with an indifferent eye from the couch, before his attentions snapped back to the TV. Oshin was on air, and the titular character was being harassed by her employers in a harrowing scene, just as Kagome was yelling. Couldn't the woman wait for a better time, for hell's sake? 

"It's out. I see."

"What? What do you mean “it's out”? So you don’t deny it—you really  _are_  a cosplay model now?" Kagome shrieked. 

A slight frown dusted over his eyebrows. "Why are you angry? You said I would make a good model. And my unorthodox looks are perfect for role-playing."

Kagome let out a cry of anguish. "Good for you then! Everything is you do is none of my business!" 

Sesshoumaru sighed heavily before he switched off the telly. He stood up and took away the magazine. 

"There is something I want to show you," he said. He walked off, heading toward the backyard. Kagome, still reeling, trudged behind him with a scowl on her face. 

She stepped into the backyard. At first it was unclear what Sesshoumaru wanted her to see—then it gleamed into view, its metallic body quietly resting against the brick wall. 

A brand-new bicycle. Kagome was at a loss for words.

"What does..." she sputtered, "this have to do with anything..." But she knew, she knew what it meant and Sesshoumaru, standing close behind her, knew that  _she_  knew. 

Slowly, almost trance-like, she tottered to the bicycle, a quivering hand over the handlebar. A solid Shimano mountain bike. It was beyond her frugal dreams.

Sesshoumaru leaned forward, his voice almost careful in her ear. "Are you still angry now?" he simply asked. 

A heavy breath drew out from her. "Thanks,” she muttered. “I've got...something to give you too."

* * *

Kagome rolled over in her bed restlessly. At last she kicked the suffocating covers off her, and sat over the edge, contemplating. With a frustrated sigh, she finally willed herself to leave the room. She marched straight towards the couch in the living room.

It was dark, the lights and telly switched off in the night. Sesshoumaru might have been sleeping, but the light from the mobile phone casting on his face proved otherwise. Suddenly the strength in her legs seemed to have sap off into the tatami flooring, and Kagome stood there rigidly, wondering what on earth was wrong with her, why the hell was she so darn anxious with him suddenly—

“What happened?” Sesshoumaru’s voice suddenly appeared. He had sat up on the couch, aware of her presence. He placed the phone aside as she hesitated, trying to find the right words. With the phone away the room fell into a darker place, with just the hint of silhouette on their bodies.

“I uh, was just checking you up. See how you were faring on the new phone.”

“I will catch up eventually,” he replied matter-of-factly. “I have always been a fast learner, something you are well aware yourself.”

“Yes, you are. You’re a fast learner.”

When she said nothing else, Sesshoumaru shifted in the couch until he made himself comfortable. In the quiet still of the night, he could detect the rapid heartbeat in her chest, and he could smell her apparent nervousness—it was the smell of her perspiration—but unless she told him anything, he wouldn’t know what was wrong with her. As much as he wished, he was not telepathic, an ability he wished he had, seeing the  _miko_ ’s ever perplexing behaviour.

“You should rest,” Sesshoumaru told her at last.

“Sesshoumaru,” she finally said, her voice like the gentlest of whispers. He tilted his head to her. “I didn’t…thank you properly for the bike.”

“Take it as a form of reimbursement for the old one I damaged.”

“Well, that’s that, and another thing is… I’m sorry.”

“For?”

Kagome shrugged. A small smile tugged the corner of his lips. The  _miko_  didn’t even know what she was apologizing for, and yet it made her struggle in discomfort like so.

“You did nothing wrong,” he said.

“No,” Kagome said, “I mean it. I haven’t been really nice to you lately.”

“I told you once, and I shall tell you again: I do not care for nice.”

“You were… You were obviously offended.”

“Offended with what?”

“Because I kept pushing you away.”

His eyebrows quirked.  _That?_  She thought he was sore over  _that?_  Did he appear so petty to her? Any fool would know the real reason he was miffed with her ever since she became involved with the boy, but seeing her overt cluelessness over the situation, he decided  _he_  was being silly. With a low sigh, he allowed the matter to rest.

“Stupid  _miko_. This Sesshoumaru is incapable of feeling offended.” When Kagome opened her mouth to say more, he quickly interrupted her. “Switch on the lights and come here.”

Sesshoumaru moved to make space for her, and Kagome sat awkwardly beside him. Her spirits were still down, so he thought about it, about that trick he saw on TV a few days earlier. He snapped his fingers beside her ear and she glanced up and before she knew it, a packet of dried seaweed had appeared in his hand.

Kagome gaped in awe as he tore the packet open and started eating. “My  _god_ , how did you— So not only are you a model now, you’re a magician too?”

“If it can make you smile, why not? And thank you for this purchase.”

A quick burst of laughter engulfed over her, and she slapped his chest, as she shook her head. “Really, Sesshoumaru! I have no more words for you!”

“It’s interesting. How an element of surprise can bring a concept of joy. I think,” he said, “that is all it matters.”

“What matters?”

“That you are content.”

Kagome stared at him for a long while until he felt compelled to push her face away. Then she took his hand in hers, and rested her head on his shoulder, breathing deeply, contentedly. It was as if the world had stopped in time when she touched his hand, only to capture the delicate moment of them resting against each other, the sound of their breaths accompanying their private thoughts.

All of it felt so… _right_.

“Ne, Sesshoumaru. I’ve been thinking of it,” Kagome said. “Now that you have a paying job, does this mean you can help me with the bills?”

“Bills?” Sesshoumaru went, genuinely in wonderment. “Is it a kind of biscuit?”

Kagome went back to bed.

_To be continued!_


	16. The Approaching Heat of Summer

**The Approaching Heat of Summer**

_Her fists once small like plums, were now akin to persimmons tugging against the stiffened silk of his hakama. She was down on her knees, sobbing, a rugged red cloak covered over her head, and when her tears ran down her ashy cheeks, they drew clean white lines against the soot._  
  
_Very quickly Sesshoumaru decided he did not like it, did not like the smell of burnt wood, mixed with tears._  
  
_"Uncle Yasha," Rin was crying. "He's still inside!"_  
  
_It was a dark night, the moon a mere slice, but the fire had lent the sky a bright, reddish tinge._  
  
_Sesshoumaru found himself entering the raging orphanage, regrettably. Almost half of the pillars had defeated in the fire, the roof disintegrating by the mere second. A falling wooden beam narrowly missed his shoulder as he walked further in._  
  
_Inuyasha lay pinned underneath the rubble at a corner, his human face barely peeking out from the shreds of debris. The rest of his body remained trapped, immobile. The fire swarmed around the other parts of the room, ravaging everything into cinders. Bleak eyes staring at the ceiling, he simply appeared like he was waiting for Death. A strange scene, given his tenacious nature._  
  
_Sesshoumaru presented a chilly smile._  
  
_"Your face looks more rounded, not since our last meeting," he called to Inuyasha. "Has the village life been feeding you well?"_  
  
_Inuyasha turned his face only to scoff weakly. "Not you. Spare me the bloody formalities and do it already. "_  
  
_"Hn," he went, his eyes assessing his surroundings. Any time now, the whole building was going to collapse, and he would not want to be caught in it._  
  
_"Any other day I would have rejoiced upon this opportunity," Sesshoumaru muttered._  
  
_He tossed the red cloak that had been in his grip, and it landed near Inuyasha's face._  
  
_"I believe this belongs to you."_  
  
_"Don't need it," Inuyasha spoke through clenched teeth, his voice turning hoarse over the fumes. Then he started to cough, horribly, as if there was something in his chest he wanted to claw out, and Sesshoumaru found himself tensing with annoyance._  
  
_"There are other ways to be foolish, Inuyasha." Sesshoumaru turned to leave._  
  
_"Hey," his half-brother called out. His usual roguish grin had returned, his sweating face bright with the flames surrounding him. "Do you think she'll remember me, when I see her again?"_  
  
_On his way back to Rin atop the small hill, where she sat huddled with the other villagers, a deafening crash reached Sesshoumaru's ears as the orphanage finally gave way, crumbling into the ground in a formless, smoking heap._  
  
_He stood there, almost frozen, watching the black ashes softly float up to the crimson sky, and as much as he tried to, he could not understand._  
  
_Once more, someone had showed him that he commanded neither Life, nor Death._

* * *

“She's a monster. Like, if the devil sent one of his minions from the fiery depths of hell, and it crawled out from some molten crack in a spewing volcano, she'd probably be it. No, screw that. She is the devil incarnate himself.”

Amari wobbled slightly on the ladder, as her arms strained up to hang the paper lantern atop the ceiling. Beneath her Kagome was supposed to keep watch, a hand on a rung, but instead her attentions were diverted to a certain topic, and she had been grumbling throughout the whole task.

The younger _miko_ bit her lip as she struggled with the lantern. She kept missing the hook jutting out from the ceiling. _Don’t look down_ , she told herself. _I shouldn’t have volunteered to do this!_

At last she gave up and sighed. “Mmm Kagome-sama that's a really mean thing to say, don't you think? I mean, I know the summer festival is coming and she is here to assist us with the preparations—but instead she's just lounging in the priest's office in _his_  chair while taking selfies on her phone and munching on the peanuts from his drawer, and not just any peanuts, but the special black ones I bought especially for him during my trip to Taiwan…”

“I admire how you can say all that while still putting an empathetic face.”

“I'm not done yet. She has a weird smell to her too.”

“It's brinestone. I _told_ you she crawled out from a volcano.”

Amari pouted. “Can we at least agree Jyohaku-sama should have been here? At least he wouldn't enforce overtime on us.” She added wistfully, “I miss the priest.” A sudden energy renewed her determination and she strived again, reaching up on tiptoe, the hook almost touching the lantern now…

Kagome looked up to her friend with a smile, reaching up to pat her back. The head priest was consigned to another shrine for the week, and a relief staff had been arranged in his absence to help prepare for the upcoming summer festival. Unfortunately the person had not been much of a help…and the two _miko_ found themselves doing everything on their own, from planning the festival activities right to hand-crafting the decorations itself. It was exhausting to say the least, and they had no choice but to stay late in the shrine every day.

“There there, he'll come back soon alright.”

Amari squealed as Kagome’s patting cause her to teeter and lost her balance. She managed to stay put on the ladder, but the lantern had slipped from her fingers. It crashed onto the floor. Kagome and her friend stared at the disfigured ornament, then slowly to each other’s faces. That was going right out of their pockets.

“ _Girls_!” came a squeaking shriek from the garden.

They lumbered to the garden reluctantly. On the pond bridge stood the relief _miko_ , who was lunged over looking into the waters, her head shaking side to side frantically. When the two ladies approached, she snapped her head up, her open-mouthed expression signalling an ongoing meltdown.

“My phone!” she screamed. She pointed into the pond, her finger like a harpoon stabbing into a whale. “It dropped into the pond!”

Kagome and Amari eyed each other, trying hard to contain the laugh bubbling within their chests.

Hana was an older _miko_ in her early thirties, and served in a shrine up at Nishidai for six years and counting. Usually coquettish in the presence of men (something to note when she first came to introduce herself to Jyohaku), she quickly lost her charm with her female workmates, as soon as her bossy and lazy nature began to rear its ugly head.

Kagome managed a sympathetic look. “How awful. Now you can't take any more photos of yourself.”

Hana’s nose flared. She knew the ladies were secretly gloating over her misfortune. The cheek of them, really! She stared at Kagome first, who appeared unperturbed before finally setting her sights on Amari.

“You!” she barked. “Get down and retrieve my phone for me!”

The _miko_ visibly quaked. “H-huh? How?”

“I don't care! Go jump into the pond and get it for me!” Seeing the incredulous look on their faces, and her slipping grip on them, Hana quickly decided on an ultimatum. “Or… Or I complain to the priest on your negligence! Failure to keep the bridge pathway clean, thereby causing me to slip and lose my phone!”

Blood rushed to Kagome’s face. This woman was just too much! “Hey wait a minute!” she shouted. “I may have tolerated your lazy ass because you're a senior, but I'm not gonna let you bully my partner like that!”  
  
“So you jumped into the pond,” Sesshoumaru surmised after Kagome had related the chain of events, her burning head on his lap.

“Yes I did. And now I’m coming down with a cold.”

“It’s the second time you have fallen sick in half a year,” he remarked, and he brushed away her long hair covering her miserable face. He had been utterly shocked, going home earlier that evening after a day’s shooting, only to see Kagome sprawled out in the main entrance. “It is as though your immune system had taken a plunge. Pun intended.”

Kagome groaned inwardly. “I have to curb my fever before it reaches its pitch. Darn it, I can’t afford to take leave now. Poor Amari, she’ll be alone.”

“Even at this state you are thinking of others.”

“You would too, if you were me.”

He held her shoulder for a while, holding his silence as Kagome remained weakly on the bed, taking slow breaths. Then he said, “I will nurse you back till you gain enough strength. This is my purpose here, after all.”

She looked up at him, letting her eyes rest on his face for a moment. “That's really sweet, Sesshoumaru. But you kinda realize that you're the reason I fall sick easily now, right?”

Sesshoumaru smiled down at her. It was an odd smile, one that sent chills through the rising temperature in her blood.

“There is a certain charm in seeing you in this vulnerable, helpless state. If only that swim had dampened your incessant chatter.”

“You're not listening.”

He allowed her to rest. Kagome slept, her interwoven fever dreams inducing a fitful slumber. Once in awhile, a familiar laughter would probe the murky corners of her relenting consciousness, and somewhere in that darkness she knew it was the _zashiki warashi,_ the child spirit in her house up to its tricks.

She woke up somewhere in the night, her head heavy as lead and her throat dry like sandpaper. Kagome groggily dragged herself to the toilet. As she sat on the cold pot, her mind dwelling on work, a shadow of a movement at the bathtub caught her eye. She thought she was having another fervid dream, but no, this was real, that rush of cold blood in her veins was real, which meant that _thing_ was real—

There was a red-skinned creature squatting in her bathtub, its long tongue noisily licking the white porcelain.

Kagome screamed.

Awhile later, Sesshoumaru sat crouched near the bathtub with an observant gaze while Kagome stood behind him, arms folded tightly, shaking. The ghastly being had conveniently disappeared outright.

“I believe you saw the _akaname_ ,” Sesshoumaru stated calmly. “It’s a creature that licks the mildew and grime in dirty baths. Often appears during summer.” He wiped a finger inside and frowned. “This is strange. I always clean the bathtub every morning.” He then shot her a look for validation. “You know I do.”

“Sesshoumaru, what is this?” Kagome finally wailed, clutching her head. She was on the verge of collapsing. First the creepy _zashiki warashi,_ and now this! “Have you been attracting demons in my house?”

He rubbed his chin, still frowning. “Hn. I suppose they are attracted to my aura.” He stood up, gripping his fist with vigour, his face awashed with a hardened fortitude “No matter. I shall peruse them to my advantage to gain more strength.”

“No way—I absolutely do not tolerate all of your questionable guests here!”

“They are no more guests—they’ve become permanent members in the household now.”

Kagome squinted at him in disbelief. She couldn’t even be mad, not when she was sick and losing strength in her legs. He caught her just as in time as her knees gave way. Sesshoumaru put his arm around the _miko_ ’s quivering body. Her body had gotten slightly warmer, and of the moment, a bath was not a wise idea.

“Your fever is rising. Do you wish for me to wipe you down?” he asked as he guided her back to her room. Then like a careful afterthought, he added, “I shall promise to be gentle and tender.”

“I want to go back to bed,” Kagome whined.

“Yes, we can do so in bed too.”

“No!”

_A few days later…_

That morning Jyohaku stood still under the _tori_ gate before the shrine, in pure wonder. The bright lanterns and exciting banners greeted him at the entrance, all ready for the summer festival. He muttered under his breath. “I can't believe they actually put the decorations up so fast.”

“Jyohaku-sama!” He heard an enthusiastic cry from the shrine. His two apprentices came rushing up to him, their arms spread out in joy. “You're back! We missed you!”

“I must have gotten to the wrong shrine!” the priest gasped, shuffling backwards from the squealing ladies.

“ _Kyaaaaa!_ Please don’t leave us again!”

* * *

The ten-thousand yen note flung down on the counter. Ichiro stared at it, before his eyes roved back up to the customer, who drilled him with a condescending gaze.

“What’s wrong with you?” he mumbled, finally steeling up his courage. This, he thought, this was definitely personal. “What did I ever do to you? Why do you hate me so much?”

Sesshoumaru smirked lightly. “That is a rather underrated observation on your part. I do not hate you.” Then he lowered his voice to a whisper and leaned forward, an ominous glint washing over his eyes. “I _despise_ you.”

He gathered the plastic bags of groceries in his hand. Sesshoumaru stopped just before exiting from the supermarket doors, knowing full well Ichiro was still staring hard at him.

“Ironic, is it not,” Sesshoumaru said. “That while it is understandable that she does not remember, apparently you do not, too.”

And before Ichiro could ask anything more, he quickly stepped through the doors and disappeared into the night, leaving the store manager purely confused and shaken.

_To be continued!_


	17. Bonsai Kitten: Part 1

**A/N: I'm so sorry if my fic is turning sombre over the chapters... It's supposed to be a comedy... So this chapter will be light-hearted to compensate for all the dreariness *cries in small corner***

**Bonsai Kitten: Part 1**

After just a few deft snips of his small clippers, the crown of the bonsai tree now looked much neater and immaculate. Sesshoumaru edged slightly backwards to get a better view. Yes, perfect. Then his line of sight travelled to the other bonsai tree just beside. It looked like an old poodle. An old poodle sporting unsightly gnarly branches, with weeds sprouting near its roots.

Shaking his head, he directed his clippers to trim the wayward leaves. This sad little travesty of a bonsai tree belonged to Kagome.

Both trees had been purchased on a whim a few months ago. A new gardening store had popped up, and soon every housewife in town was suddenly interested in gardening, and for some, the more complicated art of topiary. Kagome wasn't a housewife. But she had pulled him (figuratively, of course) by the ear, and before he knew it they were leaving the store with  _two_  bonsai plants.  _It's too adorable_ , she said.  _Don't they just look those screaming mandrake thingies from Harry Potter_ , she said.  _Imma call this one Billy and tie a ribbon around its trunk. Billy the Bonsai. Good one, eh?_  
  
Why two, he never bothered asking. One for me, one for you, he quickly assumed then. Except that Sesshoumaru was never interested in bonsai plants in the first place. Had Kagome asked him—and oh, was it such an easy question to ask if one bothered, just a simple, "My dear, don't mind my curiosity, but are there any kind of plants that you especially fancy?" would have sufficed—he would have declared that a pot of lemongrass would be good to keep the mosquitos away.

To make matters worse, Kagome's bonsai craze only lasted a mere few weeks. Over time the reality of its high maintenance began to override its appeal. It no more appeared like those magical creatures on film, but instead a small living burden. It was a phase, and nothing more.

And now Sesshoumaru found himself bending over his and  _her_  bonsai trees, tending to them in resignation.

He wondered if all humans were like so. To invest that much interest, only to lose them very shortly. Or perhaps, it was only his Kagome.

Sesshoumaru's internal monologue was interrupted by the soft ringing of the alarm clock.

He stopped his work and listened intently for a moment. It was now time for the  _miko_  to rise up.

* * *

"Miko," he softly urged by the bedside. " _Miko_."

She groaned. Her head turned heavily towards him.

"I'm sleepy," she murmured, eyes still tightly closed. He waited for a while and she groaned again, rolling away in bed. "Mmmm...what time is it?"

"6.15am."

"Already? Ughhh."

"You have approximately 45 mins to get ready for work. 25, if you intend to savour your breakfast."

Her willpower to open her eyes suddenly surged. She lifted her head and gaped at him expectantly. "So what's for breakfast?"

"Yours or mine?"

"Uh...mine?"

"Today will be your favourite pancakes."

"With extra whipped cream and strawberries?"

"Just the way you like it."

"And chocolate chips in it?"

"A full cup of them."

Kagome was fully awake now. Grinning and slightly salivating. Or was that last night's drool?

"Wait," she went, suddenly suspicious. "Then what's your breakfast?"

Sesshoumaru looked deep into her sleep-sunken eyes.

"Apparently...she is still in bed."

A hushed silence fell over them. When it hit her Kagome lunged forward to pull him by his cheek, distorting his placid features.

"Stop saying such things with that stoic face!"

Sesshoumaru frowned. "It is simply my nature."

Awhile later, still in her pyjamas, Kagome sat at the kitchen table, scarfing down her pancakes.

She peered at her housemate seated opposite her. Gone was the cotton Hello Kitty apron, replaced by a sturdier grey canvas, severe like the look in his eyes now. His hair was longer now as well, gathered in an annoyingly effortless knot.

Her fork travelled mid-way to her mouth. "You know it used to be cute, maybe like, during the first few times. But now it's like, how do I say this, a bit intrusive?"

Sesshoumaru removed his hand that was cupping his chin. "Speak your mind, miko. 'Tis too early in the morning to be solving riddles."

"You. Staring at me while I eat."

Sesshoumaru pondered, and nodded.

"I agree. You used to be somewhat endearing when you eat—now you are simply gobbling and chomping down your food like a farmhouse turkey." His eyebrows knitted in a subtle expression of disgust. "It's almost...  _uncivilised_."

Kagome hurled her fork down the plate. "No breakfast for you!"

* * *

" _Summer loving had me a blast_ ," Amari hummed, as she dusted the rows of Shinto texts on the archives shelves in the Yukino Shrine. " _Summer loving happened so fast_."

Suddenly a dark face loomed quietly into view from behind the shelves.

"Kirihata, do you like cats?" the head priest whispered.

"Aieeee!" Amari nearly fainted.

"What's going on?" Kagome's head popped into the room just in time.

"You found a small, stray kitten? And it needs a home?" Kagome concluded after hearing the priest's tale. All of them were assembled in his office. "But Jyohaku-sama, I thought you love having cats as pets."

The priest steepled his hands on the desk, almost as if to hide his troubled face. "Well, that's the problem. I have too many cats now."

"How many?" Kagome innocently enquired.

"I'm unable to fit in one more, that's for sure."

Kagome and Amari glanced at each other in question.

"Well, how many?"

"I rather not say," answered the priest, as he glanced outside the window.

"Twelve cats?!" Kagome later bellowed at the fortune-telling station outside the shrine, while refilling the number sticks in the tins. "Twelve cats... Someone's totally digging the spinster life!"

"I didn't know the priest had a penchant to bring home stray cats," added Amari, slotting the fortune slips in the numbered drawers. "He truly has a heart of gold."

"I think he has a strange addiction, more like."

Amari turned to her partner. "Well, can't you keep the kitty as a pet, Kagome-sama?"

Kagome shrugged. "I'd like to, but I don't think my housemate is fond of cats, frankly speaking. He doesn't tell me—it's just a feeling."

"How would you know if you never ask him?"

"He has always been a... How do u say this, a dog person?"

Amari pouted, pausing for a while. "Well I'm allergic to cats, so I'm totally out."

Kagome wondered about it. "Wow, that totally sucks."

"Why do you say that?" Amari asked curiously.

"Obviously, you can't live with a cat hoarder like Jyohaku-sama then," she stated matter-of-factly. Seeing the dejected look on Amari's face, she quickly realised her blunder. "Um, what I mean is, you  _can_ , just that there's going to be a lot of compromise..."

"Well I believe if you really love someone, you'll try your best to adapt," Amari said with a small smile.

Kagome smiled back at her, albeit a bit uneasily. The topic was touching too close to home. She pretended to place more focus in her work.

"Speaking of adapt, how has your experience been so far working here, Amari-chan?"

"It's lovely. It gets really gruelling, but, I feel a sense of satisfaction. Plus I'm really attached to this place," Amari said, looking back at the shrine.

"I don't remember asking you this, but why did you decide to be a  _miko_ , Amari-chan?"

Amari laughed. "Oh it wasn't my idea initially. It was my brother's."

"You mean Ichiro-kun?"

"Uh-uh. He has always had this weird fixation on shrine maidens since he was a kid. For example, he would dream of them and sketch them on paper all day long." Amari paused. "We all thought he would grow out if it, but apparently he didn't."

Kagome placed the full tin aside, slowly. "Does he still continue drawing them?"

"Well he doesn't, but..." Amari shook her head, her short hair bouncing. "Anyway, he's the one who suggested me to pursue this profession. I didn't really have an idea of what to do after college anyway. I wasn't a very smart student."

 _At least you finished college_ , Kagome thought.

"Well put it this way," she then said, holding her friend's shoulder with a gentle smile. "You wouldn't have met Jyohaku-sama, otherwise right?"

Amari stared back at her, her eyes shimmering. "Kagome-sama... Do you... _know_ about it?"

Kagome laughed. "Of course I do, but  _he_  doesn't."

Amari giggled, and hugged her tightly. "And one more thing. I wouldn't have made a good friend like you either, Kagome-sama."

"It's such a pity. It's a really cute kitten though. You saw its photo, didn't you?"

"Yes! And I couldn't stand seeing the priest so depressed."

And so that night, Kagome decided to venture into a little "query" of her own.

As usual Sesshoumaru was poised rigidly on the couch, unblinking eyes fixated on the television. An opened pack of potato chips sat on his lap. All those junk food and he still failed to gain weight.

She sank into the seat beside him, quietly at first. He remained engrossed, too absorbed.  
One would think he had been possessed by the screen. Kagome glanced to see what had wholly captured his attention, to the point he had failed to even acknowledge her presence. It miffed her slightly. No, correction. It pissed her greatly.

A woman in an elaborate kimono was kneeling on a theatre stage. Her face was paper-white, made up in a stereotypical  _kabuki_  fashion. As her neck swung in an extremely fluid, almost snake-like manner, her face depicted a discernible kind of expression, somewhere between sorrow and pain. In the background taiko drums rolled towards a feverish pitch, as a solemn voice called out in archaic words.

Kagome followed the scene with much disinterest. She toyed with the frayed hem of her sleeve.

"Hey," she said.

Sesshoumaru ignored her. She bumped his shoulder hard.

" _Heyyy_."

Seeing he was paying her not even the slightest attention, she quickly jumped into his lap, blocking his view.

"Sesshoumaru!" 

Instantly Sesshoumaru shoved her with one push, and she was sent rolling off the couch. Seething, Kagome dived for the TV remote control and switched the TV off.

"I'm talking!" she screeched.

Sesshoumaru finally looked at her, visibly irritated. "What,  _miko_?"

"Do you like cats?"

Sesshoumaru's face went blank for a while. Then a smile slowly curled the edge of his lips.

"I adore cats, as much as I adore you…" he said, "…for barring me from watching an extremely critical performance of The Heron's Maiden—"

"Sesshoumaru, this is on DVD. You watch this every. Single. Day!"

He put up a finger. "One word: Tamasaburo."

Kagome stared at him in open-mouthed disbelief. "So…do you like cats?"

"Perhaps if you allow me to watch this in peace, I might just tell you."

But he failed to inform her, or rather he  _forgot,_ and the next day to his great consternation, the doorbell had rang.

Sesshoumaru opened the door. It was the head priest, with a cat basket in his hand.

_To be continued!_

**A/N: Does anyone remember the bonsai kitten internet hoax like years ago? No? Apparently there was a website detailing how to grow kittens in small jars… Disturbed the hell out of me as kid. (It was later proved to be fake, don't worry) That aside, do comment my latest chapter and I'm sorry for late updates. I love you all, really.**


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